One Year Only
by buddy w
Summary: Zelda starts at a new school. After a disasterous first day, she makes her first real friends. On the side, Zelda is studying. Her dad is determinded for her to get a scholarship into a better school. Question is, does she want to?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

First day at a new school, breathe out. No-one's going to bite you. Just... keep breathing. That's a good start.

With that barely comforting thought, I picked myself out of bed and wandered drowsily down the stairs. I hated mornings. Unlike my younger sister, I thought mornings were the worst part of the day. Especially on days like this.

My horrible new uniform dress was lying on the couch, waiting for me to put it on. The sight of it tortured me, with its pale blue and purple stripes; it struck me as the ugliest thing I've ever seen. That's including all those frilly dresses my mother had put me in when I was a baby.

My sister Midna came bounding the stairs already dressed in her new uniform. She was starting in year seven, at the same school as me, but a different section. That just meant I wouldn't see her often during actual school time.

I moodily wandered around the kitchen, gathering things for my lunch and recess break. All the while, my father hung around, watching me. Every so often he'd glance down at the paper in his hand, but I could feel his eyes on me.

My head was pounding, and the second he left the room, I quickly swallowed a couple of pain pills. I was feeling just a touch faint, but I'd be fine. Just fine.

Actually, I wouldn't really mind missing my first day of school. I fact, I would love to miss the whole year at this school. But I wouldn't be allowed. Though my father had lost his job, he wouldn't let me compromise school. As a prior teacher, he thought teaching the next generation was the most important thing in the world.

Sighing, I continued to gather all my belongings. I stuffed all my books into my old school bag and heaved it onto my back. _Good Goddesses, it was heavy!_ I dropped it back onto the ground and watched as it slowly lolled backwards into the chair. This was going to be a long day.

(xxx)

My father drove us to school. Sure, it was only a fifteen minute walk, but I wasn't sure where to go and I couldn't face this alone.

I sat alone in the car in my hideous uniform staring at his retreating back as he walked my sister a little down the street to her part of the school.

I stared at the clock on the dashboard as the time ticked by. 8:00… 8:03… 8:07… 8:15… I was starting to panic. The receptionist had told us to be at the office at 8:15. I couldn't be late, not on my first day. My breath sped up, but I relaxed as much as possible when I finally saw my father walking towards me.

"Are you okay, Zellie?" he asked. His voice was hoarse as always, but today it was laced with a slight panic. He seemed as nervous as I was. I nodded my head faintly to answer his question. I was afraid if I made to many sudden movements, I would just fall to the side and not be able to get back up.

And whilst it would be a great alibi, it would still be really embarrassing.

The air conditioner was going full blast inside the main office, the cold air hitting us hard as we entered. Starting to tremble slightly, I moved up to the front desk.

"Umm… could you please tell me where to go? I'm new here and…" My meek voice trailed off. She nodded, turned and walked away. I was left standing at the glass, confused. I straightened up a bit and glanced behind me. My father was waiting patiently, but I could tell he wanted to move. The office attendant strode back, holding a wad of papers in her hand. She sat down and looked at me again with a bored expression as if to say 'Oh, you're still here, are you?'

Shuffling through the papers, she asked me my name in a flat, monotonous voice.

"Zelda, Zelda Harkinian," I answered, a fearful shake in my voice. What if I wasn't on the list? Would they just tell me to go home?

It seemed that this messy office was more organised than I thought. She picked up a paper and nodded. She placed it down again and opened her pouting little mouth.

"You are in…" she looked down again to check the class. I noticed whoever had written it had horrible handwriting. It was scrawled messily and there was no way to distinguish between the B and E. Finally she looked up and decided that I was in, "10B."

I walked back to my father quickly, anxious to get to class. It was only 8:30, and classes started at 9:00, but I didn't want to miss anything. We walked slowly through the school, taking in all the different people and buildings. We walked to a corner of what the lady had called "the plaza". I gratefully dropped my bag onto the pavement and rubbed my sore and sweaty shoulders. The heat was horrible.

"Zellie, are you sure you're okay? I can stay a little longer, until everyone goes into class." my father offered. I shook my head. Nobody had their parents with them and I didn't want to look weirder and stupider than I already felt.

"No, dad, you can go. I'll be fine," I objected, more confidence in my voice than I actually felt. He looked at me once worriedly, then walked away. I sighed as I shrugged out of my jumper. _I_ was worried, but there was no need for him to be, too.

People rushed by me, everyone surrounded by a group of friends. They all chatted happily about their holidays, and how much harder they thought this year was going to be. I sighed. This year would be painful, but not the parts at school. As a government school, they followed the curriculum laid out for them. My old school was privately run, and much further ahead. My pain would come after school.

Seated in my classroom, everyone stared at me. They were all still speaking mindlessly to the person beside them, but all eyes were on me. Great. Just what a new girl wanted, to be a gawked at.

A teacher walked into the room and I lifted my eyes from the cartoon I had been doodling. She was a plump, grey haired lady with her mouth pressed into a strict line but laugh lines all over her face. She didn't look to bad, I decided.

Keeping my gaze down, I stumbled up to her desk after she called the roll. She hadn't called my name. Nervously, I started, "Excuse me, miss, but... you didn't call my name. I, uh, just started here and I was told to come to this class."

"I see, dear. What is your name?" she inquired. When she had scribbled my name down, I sat silently back in my seat. I still appeared to be the centre of attention. Three girls approached me hesitantly, as if they thought I might attack them.

The shortest one stuck out her hand. I finally looked up into her face and shook her hand hesitantly.

"Hi, I'm Tanya. This is Di and Mel," she pointed over her shoulder at the two other girls. They seem to be under her command, her henchmen. Well, henchwomen. I nodded and introduced myself, but then looked back down again and continued with my drawing. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tanya frown and walk away, whispering to her two cronies.

In the locker bay during snack, I simply stood in a corner, eyeing my apple distastefully. I've never liked apples, but it was either that or bananas, and I hate them even more. The only thing bananas were good for was being thrown at unsuspecting passer-bys and watching their reaction.

I stayed there for the entire fifteen minutes of recess, occasionally taking a bite of my apple. When the bell finally rang, I quickly threw it in the bin and took out my books. I was alone in the locker bay, and I found that strange. Not wanting to look too awkward, I simply shuffled through my books over and over again, waiting for someone else to arrive.

Over three minutes later, the first stragglers started to enter the lockers. I decided it was safe for me to take out my books then.

Standing alone outside the classroom, I shivered as a cold breeze suddenly blew. I was here first. The bell had gone over five minutes ago and the teacher had not even arrived. I shook my head in wonder. No wonder the standard difference between this school and my old one was so great.

I sat alone for the two periods before lunch as well. No-one came to speak to me, but I could still feel their eyes staring into my back. The class was boring. All the teachers had simply given them work sheets about organisation and study timetables to read. I sat in my chair staring down at the mindless patterns my pencil created. My head was starting to feel a little light and occasionally a wave of nausea and pain would pass over me, but they were quite easily oppressed.

For the last minute of class, I simply stared at the clock, willing it to go faster. Every second seemed to last an eternity, and I was too impatient to wait for eternity.

When the bell finally honoured us with its presence, I immediately picked up my books and left the room. I ignored the strange looks I received from the students and the teacher and kept walking.

As soon as I got to the locker bay, I immediately downed two more painkillers, in an attempt to be able to get rid of the now crippling pain.

I stood alone in my corner again, this time clutching my sandwich. The three girls who had spoken to me earlier came up to me. Tanya's face seemed uncharacteristically soft.

"Why don't you come and sit with us?" she asked. Surprised and pleased at the gesture, I nodded eagerly and followed them to their apparently usual haunt. It was a bricked of the back of a building, facing onto a hill that doubled as the teachers car park. I sat down and leaned against the bricks, listening to their conversation.

"I went out with him last year, but dumped him in the first week of the holidays. He just got _so_ annoying that I couldn't stand him anymore."

"I know what you mean. Do you think Ingo will still want to go out with me? We haven't seen each other all holidays because he was working at the ranch…"

"Of course he still wants to go out with you. You haven't officially broken up so…"

I stopped listening; the conversation was endless and boring. Boys, I sighed. Saria's question broke me out of my reverie.

"So how many boys have _you_ gone out with, Zelda?"

I didn't really want to answer that. "A couple," I answered grudgingly. As much as I didn't want to tell these girls that I'd just met about my love life, I felt bad not answering their question when they'd acknowledged my existence.

Tanya looked like she was about to comment, but then a boy called her name, I was saved from an interrogation. Her head whipped around she broke into a charming smile.

She walked up to him, grinning. He smiled too, but he looked a little reluctant to answer her hug.

"How've you been?" he asked, breaking away from her. As he did, another boy walked up behind him. All three of them started to talk, and as they did, they wandered closer and closer to where we were sitting. Saria looked down at me, before introducing me.

"Zelda, this is Link," she pointed to the first boy, "and Kafei," she pointed to the other. They both sat down opposite me and nodded their heads, an inclination they had acknowledged my name.

"Zelda. Name sounds familiar," Link muttered absently.

As the five students began to talk animatedly, I took the opportunity to examine the two boys closer. My eyes moved to Kafei first. He was not short, but not exceptionally tall either. His light brown hair was spiked up into what he must've wanted to be casual spikes. Instead, they stuck up in an almost orderly fashion, and the way he kept ruffling his hand through it, he obviously wanted to keep them standing up. In the sun, it occasionally got a strange pale purple look to it.

Link, on the other hand, seemed as if he had paid no attention to his appearance at all and still managed to look handsome. His dirty blonde hair rested scruffily on his shoulders and two blue earrings glinted in the sunlight on each ear. He sat tall, with his back straight. He was slim, but when he stood, I guessed he'd be almost a head taller than me.

As my eyes travelled to his face, the first thing I noticed was two sparkling blue orbs, showing laughter and happiness. His eyes were beautiful. When he laughed, the laugh lines around his eyes showed. The laugh lines were deep and long, they travelled almost down to his mouth. A happy sort of person.

As I was still pondering over him, I realised that the two blue orbs were staring into mine. As I looked back into them, I could almost feel his friendliness. We stared at each other for what must have been a fraction of a second, before we both looked away. I was blushing lightly.

The rest of lunch time passed by, with my three new friends chatting to the boys. All the while, I kept my eyes down, imagining strange eccentric patterns onto the concrete. From time to time, I felt someone looking at me. Too lazy and not interested to look up and see who it was, I ignored them, staring at the pavement.

When the bell rang, I ignored it. At my former school, I would've jumped up immediately and pretty much run to get my books, but it seemed no-one was afraid of time here. By the time the second bell had rung, we had just barely started moving towards the lockers.

The rest of the day passed in strange chunks. Sometimes, it would fly by, but others, it would drag. I wasn't sure if the extra pain pills had worked, because whilst my pain had disappeared, I was now just starting to feel numb, and a little dizzy. When the final bell rung, I was one of the first to leave the room, once again. I had never been so eager to leave school.

Walking out of the school gates, I shook my head in a futile attempt to clear it. Instead, it only seemed to get more fogged up. It was a strange sensation, though not a completely ghastly one. A wave of nausea passed over me and again it was easy enough to get rid of.

Thinking back as rationally as I could, the day hadn't actually been too bad. I had been expecting to be stared at and not included, but the main thing I had found strange was that none of the teachers had had my name on their list. Other than that, most people had seemed fine. Link and Kafei had been nice, though I hadn't really talked to them myself. A few people in my class had even spoken to me during the last two periods.

I heard someone panting slightly behind me, but didn't turn. Must just be some kid late for the bus. As I kept walking, I heard my name being called out between the pants. I turned to see Link jogging towards me, carrying a bloated bag on his back. I stopped walking and waited for him to catch up. My head was spinning and I had to put up and effort to even get my eyes into focus. People stared at me while he ran. Catching up to me, his breath slowed and he smiled. His smile was angelic, the laugh lines accented quite heavily. I gave a faint smile in response.

"So, how was your first day?" he asked after a small pause in which he regained his breath.

"Alright, I guess," I answered softly. My body felt heavy, and for a moment I thought I was going to tip over.

"Met anyone nice?"

"A few people." I was still standing, but only just, I thought.

"Did you hear me at lunch time when I said I had heard your name before?" he asked. I nodded. I had assumed it to be just a coincidence, but apparently there was more behind it. Also, nodding seemed to only bring on a sudden fiery migraine.

"I had heard it earlier today, on the teacher's roll. Every teacher we've had so far has called out your name," he said. My breath hitched for a moment. It could've been taken as shock at this news, but that was only a coincidence. I coughed for a moment as he went on. "I think you might be in the wrong class."

"What class are you in? Or... what class am I meant to be in?" I asked, my voice breaking and squeaking in strange places. I had stopped walking as I simply tried to regain my balance. I could see Link just in front of me, with a confused look on his face, most likely at my strange behaviour. Every now and then his face shifted out of focus and the world spun.

"10E," he replied cautiously. I nodded minutely, trying to seem normal.

I hesitantly tried to take a step, but as soon as I raised my foot, I felt my body tip and fall. Before I felt he actual crash, the spinning world around me went black.

* * *

**Authors Notes:**

Hey, for my first fanfic, it's not that bad, is it?

Well anyway...

In case anybody's wondering, these characters are based on my real friends, jus changed a little.

Next chapter should be up...god knows when..

Leave us a review!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

There was a dull thudding in my ears. I lifted my hand, but let it drop back down again as the thudding became ringing. When I tried to open my eyes, they felt heavy. I let out a groan and heard a low chuckle from somewhere near me.

As my hands regained some feeling, they groped at the soft sheets around them. The cloth seemed strangely familiar. Though my eyes still wouldn't open properly, I pushed myself onto my elbows and sat up hastily.

Pain ripped through my head, as if it had been set on fire. The air rushed out my lungs, and all the strength in my back disappeared. I let myself fall backwards, but when I expected to feel the soft pillow underneath me, I only felt a pair of strong hands, holding me up. They lowered my gently onto the pillow, and I heard another chuckle.

Taking a few deep breaths, I relaxed into the covers. Suddenly, my whole body felt light. My eyes fluttered open, and swerved in their sockets, taking in every aspect of my surroundings. Right in front of my eyes, a boy stared into my eyes. He wore a small smirk, his dirty blonde bangs hanging in front of his face.

I frowned. His face was familiar, but I couldn't recognise him. Seeing my confused expression, he chuckled and sat on the chair near my desk.

"What happened?" he asked joking. "I've always thought myself quite reasonable to look at." I smiled a little.

"Link."

"The one and only," he laughed. He sobered quickly, then gave me a dubious look. "Look, are you alright? You kind of, uh, passed out at school."

"Really?" I replied with mock horror. "I didn't realise."

"Seriously." He certainly did look serious. "Why did you faint? It… wasn't something I said, was it?"

"Nah. To tell you the truth, I haven't been feeling well all day."

"Did you take anything for it?"

"Yes." I frowned. "Maybe that was the reason..."

"What was?" he asked.

"I think I just figured out why they say not to take more than the two pills in eight hours."

"Oh."

There was a slightly awkward silence. After all, I didn't really know this guy. I looked around, taking in my surroundings properly for the first time.

"How did I get home?" I asked him, confused and also a tiny bit scared.

"I grabbed you before you fell, put you on my motorbike and drove you home," Link replied, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"... And how did you know where I live?"

"I looked in your diary. You know, I think you may be the only person who actually fills in that first page of your diary." He took in my slightly horrified look and smirked. "Don't worry, I'm not going to start stalking you. I don't stalk ugly girls."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Ugly am I?" I muttered. "Get out of my house."

"Just kidding, just kidding." He raised his hands as if to defend himself from my thunderous look. "But seriously, I'm not a stalker."

"Let's hope not."

Link grinned at me. I eased myself into a seated position, and when I my head didn't start to ring, I started to stand.

"Hey, maybe you should take it easy," Link urged, standing up too, his hands out ready to catch me if I fell. That was nice of him.

"I'm fine."

I took the stairs slowly at first, but when I didn't fall, I bounded down the last few. At the bottom I swayed slightly, having to hold on to the railing post for support. I felt Link's hand on my back.

"Take it easy," he murmured. I nodded in response, then walked into the kitchen.

"Hey Zel, you're awake!" Midna cried from the couch. "Hi Link."

"Hi," he replied with a smile. "And you owe me three rupees."

"Damn," she breathed, before getting up and stalking down the corridor into our fathers study.

"What were you betting on?" I asked curiously.

"How long it would take you to wake up."

"Who bet which way?"

He paused for a moment before answering. "Midna said you wouldn't be awake by the time your dad came home. I said you would." Midna walked back into the room and dumped three coins into Link's hand with a grimace.

"Sweet," he accepted, pocketing the money. I narrowed my eyes at him playfully, not being able to wipe the little smile off my face.

"What other money have you been nicking from my family?" I asked. He shrugged and grinned.

"Just that money, and this coin that I stole from your wallet." He plucked a rupee from his pocket, flicked it up in the air tauntingly and caught it again. This time I frowned at him.

"You went through my wallet?" I glanced around, noticing for the first time my bag lying open next to the couch. "You went through my bag?"

"...No. Well, not all of it! Just two of the pockets," he admitted.

"There are only three pockets! Which one didn't you go through?"

"The one that looks empty." I sighed and shook my head, causing him to grin more. I'd barely known this guy for half a day and already I hated him. Figuratively, of course.

Link settled down on a chair next at the dining table, put his feet on the table and started scribbling on a piece of paper. Well, didn't he look comfortable.

"Uh, I have a question," I said.

"Shoot, sweetheart," he replied without bothering to look up.

"Don't you have to a home to get back to? I mean, aren't your parents waiting for you?"

"Nah, no one's home tonight anyway."

"So what were you going to do all night?"

"Nothing much, really. There's a party in the west district which I was thinking of going to if I couldn't find anything better to do."

"Whose party?" I asked politely, though I wasn't really interested.

He shrugged. "I don't really know. A friend of a friend of a friend or something. But I really don't think I'll go. I'm most likely to just get beaten up by some jerk for getting in his way anyway." I shook my head in amazement. They know what's going to happen to them, yet so many people still go to these parties. But I guessed a lot of people were the actual ones who did the beating up.

"So... you're not really doing anything tonight?"

"Nope."

"So… why don't you stay for dinner?" I offered. Link looked surprised for a second, then grinned.

"Sure. Thanks."

"You're very welcome."

(xxx)

Over the next hour or so, all of the awkward pauses between us vanished. I was the sort of person who couldn't keep her mouth shut for more than ten minutes if there was even one person who would listen. And whilst Link was also a very keen talker, he also turned out to be a very good listener.

"How often do you cook?" he asked, his eyes on the knife I was using to chop onions.

"A few times a week, usually, but since I'm going to be getting home earlier now, I'll probably do it a lot more," I replied, scraping the onions into a pot. They sizzled in the hot oil until I stirred them around, added some garlic and turned the heat down.

"We have home economics as subject this year you know," he pointed out. I nodded and smiled.

"Yeah I know. I'm looking forward to an easy subject." Not to mention that most subjects were going to be easy this year.

Midna strolled into the room, holding some books in her arms. She sniffed the air appreciatively.

"Smells good, Zel," she commented.

"You say the same thing every time," I grinned.

"I'm not lying, I just can't think of any way to say it." I snorted and kept stirring. Link leaned over as she passed and yanked something out of her arms.

"I'm borrowing these," he said, opening the packet of coloured pencils and going to work with them on the paper he'd presumably been drawing on for the last hour.

"Hey, that looks pretty cool!" Midna exclaimed, looking over Link's shoulder.

"Why thank you."

"What is it?" I asked. Midna grabbed it from Link and held it up so I could see it. A black and white scene, which I quickly recognized as the view from my bedroom window... except different. I smiled.

"I'm almost certain that there aren't usually dragons outside my window. All the good stuff seems to happen whilst I'm unconscious," I joked.

"It's such a shame you missed them," Link replied easily, taking it back from Midna and starting to colour it. There was a knock at the door as I went back to my cooking.

"It'll be dad," Midna said, walking down the corridor to get the door.

"Feet off the table," I said quietly to Link who grinned in response but thankfully complied. I heard Midna rattling off about her first day as dad walked up the corridor slowly. As he entered the room he took a deep breath and grinned.

"I'm starving Zel," he said, grinning.

"Dinner'll be ready soon." I saw him turn his eyes on Link, who regarded with surprise. "Dad, this is Link. A friend." Link stood up and smiled at my dad politely, waiting for the older to hold out his hand before they shook.

"It's nice to meet you, sir," he greeted. "I'm a friend from school."

"Really? I haven't seen you around before," Dad replied.

"No, dad, this school. East Hyrule High school," I corrected.

"Oh." He looked surprised for a second. "It's very nice to meet you too, Link."

"He's staying for dinner. That's cool, right?" I asked him, though I already knew he wasn't going to say no. No, he was too happy that I'd made a friend for that.

"Of course, of course. I'll just duck upstairs if you two don't mind. I've got a phone call to make. Call me down when dinner's ready, Zellie."

"Will do."

Link waited until my father had disappeared upstairs and we heard the door close before he grinned.

"Your father's a teacher, huh?" he asked. My back was to him now, but I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"How did you know?" I stared at him, suspicious for a moment. "You were just kidding about that stalker stuff, right?"

"Yes, yes! But it was kind of obvious the way he looked at me. I could just feel his eyes boring into my untucked shirt and dirty shoes." He shivered. "It's not my fault they're dirty, anyway. I mean, just because I haven't cleaned for a year or so... I just haven't gotten 'round to buying some polish stuff and besides, it shouldn't matter if my shows have a couple specks of dust on them," he ranted on. I snickered. It was definitely more than just a couple specks of dirt. His shoes were pretty much caked in mud, which must've been from at least six months ago, because it was the middle of summer now.

"Take 'em off near the front door. It'll stop him staring at you," I said.

"My shoes or my shirt?" I threw a tea towel at him.

(xxx)

"Are you ever going to tell me what recipe you use for this?" Dad asked, stabbing some more pasta onto his fork.

"Never," I replied, shaking my head.

"But what if one day something happens to you and me and Midna are starving to death, and the only thing we feel like eating is your pasta and we don't know the recipe? Then what?"

"Well, if you were starving to death, I'm sure you would settle for anything, not just my pasta."

"…wow, you've started thinking sense. What's happened to you, Zel?"

"Hey, shut up!" I objected. Link laughed.

"So you weren't always insane?" he asked me.

"Ganging up on me _isn't fair_!"

"Aw, don't worry Zel, we still all love you," Midna consoled caustically.

"_Shut up!_" was the only lame retort I could come up with. All three of them were laughing at me now. Wonderful.

Dad asked Link about his plan after school whilst I was scooping ice cream for dessert. I couldn't refrain from rolling my eyes. It was the same question he asked every single one of my friends if he had the chance.

"Well," Link replied. "I just want to be human, you know? Do my part for the world, even if it is small. And then, if I still have the time, graphic designing sounds interesting."

"It sounds like you've thought about this," my dad noted with an approving nod.

"Well, year ten sort of provokes these sorts of thoughts."

"In you maybe," I commented. "Ice cream, Link?"

"Uh, the chocolate one looks good."

"So you're a chocolate man, huh? So's dad," I said with a smile. "Some people say it means that a man is soft if he likes chocolate ice cream."

"I disagree. I think it just means that we're too weak for the double coffee blast that you're eating."

"Finally! Someone who agrees with me!" Dad exclaimed. "You have no idea how hard it is living in a house with these two girls."

"I don't think I'll spend too long pondering over that scary thought," Link answered. I rolled my eyes. Coffee ice cream was nice.

Link truly won his way into my father's heart by offering to help with the washing. My old man hated cleaning dishes, as did I, so I was glad to have some help.

"You wash, I'll dry," he said, picking up a tea towel. As he picked up a soapy bowl he leaned a little closer to me. "And I only like chocolate ice cream because I raised my younger sister. Little girls happen to be huge fans of chocolate ice cream."

"You raised your sister? What about your parents?" I asked.

"They died about a year after she was born," Link replied, his voice a little quieter. His smile had turned into a grimace and he attacked a bowl with the tea towel much rougher than necessary.

"So you pampered her all her life with chocolate ice cream, huh?" I teased, doing my best to lighten the mood. "What a big brother you are!" Link chuckled and sent me a thankful look, which I returned with a smile. "Where is she tonight?"

"She's staying over at a friend's house, whom of which I disapprove very much but she whined and cried until I let her go," Link sighed.

"Do you two live alone?" I asked, laughing.

"Yep. We've always lived alone, though until last year, we had a foster parent who looked in on us from time to time."

"Where's the money coming from?"

"We're not huge spenders. We live off the money our parents left us, and I do a lot of odd jobs around the place to earn a little more."

"Odd jobs meaning...?"

"Handyman stuff!" he laughed. "Fixing cars, bicycles, hairdryers, that sort of stuff. Nothing else, I swear."

I grinned, handing him the last plate to be dried. "So who does the cooking in your house?"

"What do you count as cooking, exactly?" he asked cautiously.

"Why, what do you eat?" I snickered.

"Uh, grilled cheese sandwiches... baked beans on toast... pasta out of a bottle... the occasional bit of roast cucco..."

"Sounds lovely," I muttered. "You've been looking after your sister all this time and you haven't learnt how to cook?"

"Uh, no. I can do meat, but that's about it. Aryll can cook though! And thank the Goddesses for that, because a person can only eat cheese on toast so many times in his life."

"So you're looking forward to Home Ec. huh?"

"Sure, it's an easy subject. And I wouldn't mind being able to cook something new, either."

We wandered into the living room, where Midna was setting up a game of Monopoly morosely. She looked up and her eyes brightened a tiny bit.

"Zel, will you play with me?" she asked eagerly. I coughed, trying to hide my face. I hated monopoly.

"I'll play," Link offered. Midna glanced at me, then smiled at Link.

"Thanks." I took a seat in my favourite chair, picking a book off the table in front of it. Link and Midna sat on the couch, already squabbling on what player they would be.

I was engrossed in the book within moments. I didn't notice anything else around me, completely captured in the twisting plot.

"_The Magician's Guild._ Is it any good?" Link asked, snatching the book from my hands and leafing through it.

"Sure. It's a good read," I replied. "Now give it back."

"You've read it before?"

"Yes. Many times." I sighed at his dubious look. "I like it!" I retorted defensively.

"Hmm..." Link held the book up, reading it with apparent interest. Supposedly reading it with interest, anyway.

"You're holding it upside down," I said dryly.

"Yeah, and?" Link replied. "Reading upside down is a skill that I'm trying to develop."

"Can you read even when it's the right way up?" I asked jokingly.

"Just for that, you're not getting this back." Within a split second, he had jumped over the back of the couch and scampered upstairs. I ran after him, yelling whatever threats came to mind.

I swear I ran through the house three times, the first round trying to catch Link, the second and third searching everywhere for my book. It held the prime spot in my bookshelf, and I liked it that way. Cursing colourfully, I gave up, plopping back into my seat and crossing my arms huffily. I studiously ignored Link, who was sitting on the couch, grinning profusely. He threw a wad of money tied with a rubber band at me.

"Come on," he urged. "A quick game of monopoly before I go." I continued looking away from him, but begrudgingly replied,"Whatever," and moved closer to the table.

(xxx)

Nearly an hour later, our game of monopoly came to a close. For monopoly, an hour was a really fast time. Actually, it was some of the most fun I've had playing monopoly in years.

Much to my amusement, Link had bought everything he had landed on early and then ended up nearly broke in about twenty minutes. After I had refused him a loan, he turned his begging eyes on Midna. With a little help from my younger sister, who happened to be quite the monopoly mastermind, he had earned much of his fortune back, but not before my properties had far surpassed both of theirs.

"I win," I chirped happily. It had been years since I had won a monopoly game, especially against Midna. Link glanced at the clock, then grimaced.

"It's later than I thought," he muttered. "Guess I'll be riding home in the dark." Standing up, he stretched his arms up above his head, then moved towards the door. As we wandered down the corridor, we heard frustrated oaths coming from my fathers study. I held back a chuckle.

"Dad," I called. "Link's leaving." There was an unruly grunt, the thump of of objects tumbling to the floor and another oath. My dad stumbled out, glaring at the room behind him and favouring one foot.

"Have a good night, Link," he said, shaking hands with my new friend again. "It was very nice to meet you. I'm glad my Zellie has a friend." I narrowed my eyes at the use of my nickname.

"Thanks for having me, sir," he replied, then turned to me. "Thanks, Zelda. The food was awesome."

"No problem. And, uh, thanks," I said quietly, hoping Dad wouldn't take too much notice. We followed him out the door, standing on the driveway. Dad let out a low whistle as he spotted a red bike leaning against the curb.

"An Epona, huh?" he commented. "Nice ride, that." Link turned back to us, grinned broadly as he swung his bag onto the other shoulder and pulled his helmet on. He gave a little wave as he sped down the street. _His parents must have left him _some_ inheritance, _I couldn't help but think.

"How did you meet him again?" Dad asked as closed the door behind us.

"He's in my class, Dad," I replied with a roll of my eyes. I had to hold back a sigh. I guess he really was in my class. I cursed the reception lady under my breath. "I'm going to bed now. Something about today really took it out of me."

"Alrighty-then," he said with over-cheerfulness. He walked back into his study. "Good night. I'll be in to check on you soon."

I rolled my eyes again, because I couldn't help it. My father still came into my room and tucked me into bed every night. And, as much as I hated to admit it, I liked it that way.

Laying down under the covers, I squirmed uncomfortably for a moment. Stuffing my hand under the pillow, I pulled out a book and sheet of paper. I shook my head, smiling as I recognised the book, the same one that Link had stolen from me earlier. The piece of paper glowed faintly in the darkness, barely any of its original whiteness showing. A mystical point of view of what I saw from my window.

Somehow, tomorrow didn't look so bad anymore.

(xxx)

I cursed as best I could with my blanket over my mouth at the sunlight that filtered through my blinds. Morning meant school again, and I had learnt that school wasn't really anything to look forward to since about grade six. And today was like my second first day in a row.

I walked into the office again, noting that nothing had changed since yesterday. I hadn't really expected it to, but a little bit of tidiness would've gone a long way. The reception lady glanced up at me as I approached her desk.

"I think you sent me to the wrong class yesterday," I told her, thoroughly wanting to take out my frustration on someone. "Apparently, I'm meant to be in 10E, not B."

"I'll call the co-ordinator. You can discuss your problems with him," she replied monotonously. Problems? _Problems? _I didn't have problems. That lady was my problem...

I went to lean against a wall, my face showing signs of annoyance. A person walked right past me, talked to the receptionist, then left, and I was again left alone.

Finally, a tall, balding man walked into the building, carrying a large stack of papers in his arms. He had the appearance of someone who's lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, and a slightly pointed, beak like nose. He smiled at me as he approached.

"Zelda Harkinian, I take it," he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you." When he held out his hand, I took it and shook it firmly before letting go. "I hear you went to wrong class yesterday."

"I didn't _go _to the wrong class," I interrupted. "I was sent there."

"Alright... So, today, you'll go to the correct class. Yesterday you went to 10B?" I nodded in affirmation. "Well, today, you'll go to 10E. Come on, I'll show you the way." He gave me a huge, cheery smile before starting down the corridor.

I did my best to follow the co-ordinator's stance and stand tall as I followed him down to the other side of the school but I'm afraid that it didn't completely work. As I passed the locker bay I noticed a few people from my class yesterday. I made a pitiful attempt to smile, but I'm certain it turned out to be more of a grimace.

The building we entered was centred around along, wide corridor with classrooms either side, a teachers' office on one side and a room of computers at the end of the corridor. Outside the first classroom on the left, the co-ordinator stopped and turned to me.

"This room will be your new homeroom," he informed me matter-of-factly.

"Uh, thanks, Mr..."

"Daniels. I apologise for not introducing myself earlier. I guess I'll see you later on the day too," he said, turning around and opening the door of the classroom.

"...later?" I mumbled.

"I'm your English teacher for this year," he replied with unconcealed enthusiasm and a huge grin. I noted to avoid him. Excited teachers were almost always frightening.

When he walked in, I followed hesitantly a few steps after. My bag was still slung across my shoulders and I did my best not to trip over my feet. Mr Daniels was in deep conversation with the teacher already, nodding happily. The other teacher's eyes flickered to me before he stood and beckoned me forward.

"Hi Zelda. I'm Mr A, your new home group, math and science teacher."

"Hi," I muttered back half-heartedly. He had a grey beard and moustache, dark hair and a good natured face, though his eyes were hard. I could feel eyes boring into my back and it was not a welcoming feeling.

"I believe you have a locker in the other locker bay?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "At recess, I'll get someone to help you to move your books into this locker bay, with the rest of the class. For now, take a seat." There were several empty seat around the classroom, and I had my eyes set on a solitary one right at the back of the room when someone called my name.

"Hey, Zelda right? Why don't you come sit next to me?" A girl with bright green hair pulled out an empty chair next to hers, causing much of the class to look upon her with confusion. Their gazes did seem to soften a bit though, I noticed. There was reason to respect this girl, apparently. "I'm Saria, by the way."

"Nice to meet you," I returned.

Mr A came around with my new timetable. I almost groaned gazing upon it. Maths and then English. Just what I felt like for the first two periods of the day. English had always been one of my favourite subjects, but now that I had met the teacher... I wasn't so thrilled.

Leaning back in my chair, bag dumped at my feet, I took the chance to glance around the room. No one was really paying any attention to me anymore. Everyone was still discussing holidays. Like any other school, there was distinct friendship groups around the room, judging by seating arrangements. The only two who didn't look amiable toward each other were the apir at the back of the room. Both girls sat as far from each other on the side of the table, one doodling with a tiny smile on a sheet of paper, the other staring blankly at the wall.

I heard a familiar voice near me and turned to see Link coming in the door, talking to Kafei who I recognised from yesterday. He gave me a smile as he took a seat. As the bell rang for the official beginning of class, I couldn't help but sink lower into my seat. I was bored already.

Maths first period was a breeze. Algebra and I had always been friends and this work was easier than a lot of the stuff I had done last year. I had finished all the assigned questions well before half the period was over. Glancing over at Saria's book, I realised that she had just started working on the fourth question. It almost made me laugh, but I felt it a safer decision to not.

The clock had ticked 1639 times before I bothered to avert my attention from its hands.

"Holy Nayru, you've finished already!" Saria exclaimed.

"Yep. Easy."

"Sir, Zelda's finished already!" she called loudly. I sighed. Mr A came and leaned over me as he grabbed my book and checked over the questions.

"And you didn't use the answers?" he asked dubiously.

"No sir. I was using Saria's book," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"… alright. Next class I might give you something else to do." He strode away and took his seat behind his desk again.

"Smart ass," Saria muttered after a moment. "Now you have to help me," she insisted, shoving her book before me. I rolled my eyes again.

(xxx)

When the bell finally rang, I stalked out the door and towards my locker, cursing a little under my breath. No point in replacing my books, since I had to move all of them into the other locker bay anyway. I waited for the locker bay to clear out before I walked in.

My bag was on my shoulders and the books all stacked up in my arms as I took a wobbly step. Placing one foot in front of the other, I managed to wobble down the path behind a mound of books.

A teacher looked at me funny as I did my best to walk past her.

"Thanks for the help," I muttered cynically when she was out of earshot. I stepped on an object that probably shouldn't have been in the middle of the path, crashing to the ground with my books mostly landing on top of me. Luckily this area was pretty much deserted, meaning less people to stare at me and my clumsiness. I blamed the books.

Standing up, I brushed myself off, al the whiles glaring at the books with distaste. I had half a mind to just leave them be and go and find somewhere solitary to sit. I shook my head and bent down, starting to restack them anyway. A pair of hands appeared to aid me.

Looking up, I recognised the face and smiled. It was weird that his face invoked such a reaction in me.

"Thanks, Link."

"No problem," he replied, standing up with the majority of my books in his arms.

"Here, give them to me," I said, indicating that he put them on top of the little stack already in my arms.

"No way. You're arms will break trying to carry all of these on your own. Either your arms, or your neck," he insisted, starting to walk toward the locker bay which I had been moving to.

"Which locked is yours?" he asked, gazing at all the spare lockers around the dusty old place. I took a fleeting look at the number written on my hand, then at the lockers.

"That one, down the bottom." I pointed to an empty locker.

"Cool, that's the one under mine!" Link urged the locker door open with his foot and staked the books on a shelf neatly. I sat on my haunches next to him.

"You'd better not drop anything on me," I warned. He grinned for a moment, but replaced it for an innocent look before turning to me.

"Me? Drop books on you? What on earth makes you think that I would do that?"

"I have my suspicions," I mumbled, resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at him.

"All done!" he exclaimed proudly. I nodded. It had taken the two of us only a few minutes, but if I had been on my own it surely would've taken me all of recess and cost me a couple of good bruises.

"Link!"

"Yes?" he turned to me.

"Wasn't me," I replied. Two boys walked into the locker bay, one of whom I recognised to be Kafei.

"Oh, hi," Link greeted easily.

"Where did you disappear to?" the shorted of the boys asked.

"Uh, yeah, I was helping Zelda move her stuff."

"Oh, her. The new girl, right?" he turned to me and stuck out his hand snobbishly. "I'm Vaati Winds."

"Hi," I replied back. It was weird having people introduce themselves to me and I not having to tell them my name in return.

Standing so close to me, I realised he was almost a head shorted than me. His hair was a strange shade of purple, long enough to almost touch his shoulders and spiked up using liberal amounts of styling mousse at the front. Some lay flat along his forehead, giving him a childish but sinister look.

"Come on," Kafei ruged, shoving Link's elbow impatiently. As soon as he sadi it, Vaati strode past him and out of the locker bay. Link gave me a smile before begrudgingly following his friends.

"What's up with you guys?" I heard him asked as soon as he was out.

"No what's up with _you_?" Kafei challenged. "Hanging around with a loner…"

"Well, duh, she's alone. She's new, and she doesn't know anybody else. Besides, what's wrong with talking to her and helping her find her feet?"

"Oh, nothing, just that if everyone else finds out the Link, the all loved Link, hangs around with trash, all respect gone, dude.  
Vaati sounded exasperated and angry.

"_Trash, _huh? You are both insane. If hanging around with sluts is all you want to do for the rest of your life, go head and do it without me."

"I'm sure many girls would be offended at what you just said. Let me remind you that you have always been around with us too," Vaati answered harshly.

"Not anymore, guys." A few moments later, I saw Link storm past the locker bay furiously, hands balled into fists.

(xxx)

Third and forth period were as boring as I expected them to be. I noticed that Link was sitting with another group now, but looking jovial as ever. I couldn't help but smile at lunchtime when I saw his two friends apologise to him and saw the three of them walk off together. It made me feel a little lighter too.

A little belatedly, I realised that I was now alone. Again. I stared at the sandwich in my hands, fruitlessly wondering how many different bits I could break it down into. At least that would be something to at lunchtime, right?

Two girls walked into the locker bay. One glanced at me, then whispered to the other. Turning around, they obth stared at me. Meeting their gave levelly, I kept my mouth shut.

"You're the new girl huh?" One of them finally spoke.

"I guess so."

"I'm Irin, and this is Senra, who you already know." I nodded. Senra was the quietest girl in my class, barey ever saying a word. Irin was in a different class.

"You… want to hang around with us?" Senra offered. A little surprised, I nodded.

"Sure. Thanks." It would be nice to be in some company. Beats dissecting a sandwich at all cost.

"Awesome. Come on," Irin urged. I spent the rest of lunchtime meandering around the school with my new acquaintances.

(xxx)

My dad opened the door a few moments after I'd knocked on the door. He greeted me with a smile.

Inside, I dumped my bag on a chair, trudged into my room and sat down to study. A few minutes later my father walked in.

"You started studying early today," he approved.

"Well, if I want to get four hours done today, I'd better start some time, right?" A slight note of annoyance crept into my voice involuntarily.

"Hey, you have to study hard to get back into Hylia High School. They don't hand scholarships out to just anybody. And you know that if you want to do well in life, getting a good schooling is the first step." I sighed deeply. I had heard this before, many, many times.

"I know."

At the end of last year, he had abruptly decided that, as he no longer had a job, he couldn't afford to send us to Hylai High, which is why he moved Midna and I here, to East Hyrule High. He insisted, however, that I study ike crazy and get back into Hylia High, or a school just as good as it on a scholarship. He had already submitted all the forms. He hadn't even asked if I had wanted to do all these exams.

Of course, every time he asked if I wanted to move back, I just shrugged. Somehow, that had translated into a firm yes for him.

Preparations had begun as soon as the New year had stuck. Six hours every day during the holidays, and he still expected me to do four after school. Torture knew no bounds.

* * *

**Authors Note**

Well, this chapter is up a little later than I expected, but that's only because I lost the whole thing and had to rewrite it all. Enough excuses.

Thank you to everyone who left a review.

Quokka, I used your idea for the bike. Thanks.

Well, I hope you like it. It is a little longer than the previous one, but that's good, right?

The next chapter should be up in about a week.

Please leave a comment, I really like comments.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

My first three days in 10E went almost unbearably slowly. Though I now had another friend in the class, I quickly discovered that Senra was not a very talkative person. In class, we sat together, along with Tetra and Tia. Every break, Tia would come along with Irin, Senra and I. During the breaks, we'd repetitively walk laps around the oval, them talking about the most boring things. Every time Irin would turn her back, the other two would whisper something that was probably supposed to be nasty, but really turned out to be something that no one else could care less about.

By day four, I was sure as hell ready for a change.

I fast discovered that Tetra was much more enjoyable to talk with than Senra. She was as talkative as I was, but it seemed that there just wasn't anyone in the class that she particularly wanted to talk to.

The bell rang for class of my first day in the class and my attention skipped to the door. Today was to be our first Ancient Hylian class.

The door opened and a short woman bustled in, long, badly cut red hair lying on her shoulders. Her dress looked ancient, black and in a style that I swore hadn't been seen for five centuries outside the old Gerudo Desert. Her mouth was set in a stern frown beneath her long pointed nose.

The class continued to chatter as she took her seat, set up her laptop stacked and restacked her papers and finally pulled out the roll. Tetra sniggered slightly from beside me.

"What?" I whispered to her.

"That's Ms Rova," she replied.

"Yeah, so? Beside her... eccentric dressing habits, what's wrong with her?" I could tell there was something, but I just didn't know what that 'something' was yet.

"She's a bit of a witch, but a damn stupid one, if you ask me. That, and I think the only language she can speak fluently is Ancient Hylian."

"Knowing another language is a good skill," I said, not knowing why I bothered standing up for her.

"Well yeah, but Ancient Hylian is, as the name suggests, Ancient. As in it's a dead language. No one speaks it anymore, so what's the point knowing it if you can't actually _use _it?" I only shrugged in response, regarding this teacher with curiosity. She couldn't really be as bad as Tetra was suggesting, could she?

At the front of the room, Ms Rova was attempting to call the roll. Her face grew darker with each name she called, and she almost purple by the time she got to my name, in the middle of the list.

"Zelda!"

"Yes, miss?" I replied. Oops, I hadn't realised that it wasn't a question. I should pay a little more attention.

"Everyone quiet and pay attention to important roll!" she yelled. Alright, so her speech _was_ a little broken. And her attempt at giving orders was failing.

"Pay attention to the _roll_? I mean, are we trying to memorise the class order or something?" I muttered quietly to Tetra.

"I'd bet when she can't figure out what to write on the test she'll make us do exactly that," the brunette whispered back.

"I am hoping everyone will do good work this year," Ms Rova said over the class. He voice was sounding hoarse already, and it wasn't even ten minutes into class. "Books out for new vocabulary."

She started writing words on the board at the front of the class, but her scrawl was tiny and illegible.

"Can't read her writing," I murmured, squinting at the board. Link, who wasn't too far away from me, turned to me and grinned.

"Miss, can't you write any bigger?" he whined pathetically. That was the only provocation that the rest of the class needed, almost everyone breaking out into protest.

"Yeah, miss, I can't tell what any of that says, let along means." That was Fetim. A constant problem creator, and also constantly in trouble for one thing or another, over one incident or another. I had a feeling that he may just get away with anything this class, though.

"You're writing is terrible!" yelled Silfin, another boy who wanted to be popular but was failing due to his… lack of popularness?

"Draw some lines on the board!"

"Write bigger at least."

The class was thrown into violent chaos, though everyone was still seated. Yelling was coming from all directions, aimed at Ms Rova, who seemed to be shrinking by the second. Her face alternated between bright red and being drained of all blood, her lips twitching with anger.

"Everyone quiet!" she yelled, but her voice couldn't top those of her students. Finally, after her face seemed to darken to a shade of purple, she let out a strangled cry and announced,

"I'm going to get the co-ordinator!" and stalked out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her. The class was completely silent for a moment, then erupted into laughter. People high-fived their friends, grinned and laughed again as she stormed down the corridor and went the other way.

"Awesome!" Kafei said loudly. "It took us four lessons to do that last year!"

"We made her cry in less than four weeks. Who reckons this year it'll be in the first two weeks?" Link proposed. A round of 'ayes' echoed around the room.

"Is she always like… that?" I asked Tetra.

"Hell yeah. There were rumours going around that she was taking therapy during the holidays, but I'm not sure that it's done her any good really."

"And… what's the co-ordinator going to do when he comes? Honestly, I get enough of him during English lessons."

"I know. He's not really going to do anything, besides make us copy down, like, ten words from the board or something."

"And this class is always like this?" I inquired eagerly.

"Yep," she replied happily.

"Fantastic."

It took her at least twenty minutes to get back to the classroom. Mr Daniels looked slightly put out. I guessed he'd been taken from a class.

"Books out everybody, and write out what has been written on the board so far," he said, looking disgruntled.

"But we can't-" Silfin started meagrely.

"Just write it!" He traipsed out of the room angrily and Ms Rova sat at her desk, trying to look defiant.

It was near the end of the lesson when everyone was queuing up at her desk, holding out their books in order for them to be checked. She pulled a pen from somewhere and started ticking off words.

"That's an e, not a," she corrected. "Again and again you make this mistake! Read properly."

"The writing was too small and messy, it's not my fault," the girl excused, snatching her work and walking out of the classroom.

"And you too!" Ms Rova exclaimed at the next person's book. "Mistake after mistake after mistake. What is going on?"

"We couldn't read your writing!" Fetim yelled, it being his book that she was checking at the moment. "We told you that already, but you never listen!"

Never was probably a bit of an exaggeration, what with it being the first time this year that we're having this lesson and all...

"Out, all of you, go!" Ms Rova finally caved, screeching with her head slightly ducked. I guess it was a little embarrassing for her class to be so out of control in the first class. Well, what can we say?

At recess, I stood waiting at my locker as Senra shuffled through hers then turned to wait for Irin. Tetra walked past me towards her friend. The boy glanced at me before saying something in an undertone to Tetra. She replied animatedly in return, hands gesturing wildly. They smiled at each other for a moment, before the boy turned back to his locker and Tetra looked to me.

"Hey Zel!" she called. "Come with us today." I nodded, almost eagerly.

"Hey, Senra, I, uh, hope you don't mind, but I said I'd go with Tetra today," I excused, trying not to sound like I was glad to be away from them. Irin glanced at the boy, Tetra's friend, and grimaced but said nothing.

I turned to Tetra and saw that her friend was standing next to her, running his hands through his hair. Out of nowhere he yanked a pen from his now messy blonde hair that hung just past his shoulders. His blonde bangs were pushed behind his ears and his eyes were a strange shade of brown, but tinged with red.

"Zelda, this is Sheik. He's been my best friend since... well, a very long time," she introduced smilingly.

"Hi," Sheik said with a wide grin.

As they walked through the school, I listened to their conversation but didn't really bothering having any input. Sheik slowed his stride for a little way so he was in step with me.

"So what school did you come from?" he asked.

"Hylia High," I replied, preparing myself for the usual reaction.

"That place is like, really expensive, isn't it?" Yep, there it was. The usual reaction. I nodded in response.

"So... How are you liking it at East Hyrule?" he questioned.

"It's not bad," I shrugged. "Some people are nice."

"I am, of course, one of the nicer beings in this hole." He paused. "Aren't I?"

"Well, you talk to me, so I guess so." He grinned again then turned his attention forward. His gaze was drawn visibly to the packet of biscuits in Tetra's hand. He stopped for a moment, rocked back on his heels then sprang forward, stealing a couple of biscuits, stuffing them in his mouth then plopping himself down beneath a tree as quick as possible.

"Hey!" Tetra glared at him accusingly. He shrugged innocently, his mouth still full as he attempted to chew. "I would've given you one if you had just asked."

"Yeah, right," he replied, after he swallowed painfully. He neatly dodged the elbow that Tetra aimed at him before she yanked my dress and pulled me down next to her.

I think that was the first recess this year where I haven't felt ike I was just there for politeness sake.

The next two periods went passed in a blur. Tetra and I talked nonstop, earning a few nasty glares from the teachers. The lunch bell coaxed us out of our seats, hurrying to pack up and get out of the room. A pen rolled across the table and onto the floor. Fetim, who was passing at the time, picked it up hastily and shoved it into his pocket. Glancing at the floor, I seethed.

I dashed forward a few steps and blocked his exit. He stopped to look at me.

"What? Let me pass, I'm starved," he said almost in a whine. I held his stare.

"Give me my pen back," I insisted, holding out my open palm.

"What are you talking about? I don't have your pen."

I stopped for a moment to look at him, then took a dangerous step forward and smiled as sweetly as possible.

"Aw, of course you don't. How could I doubt someone as... handsome as you?" I said, teasing although my voice didn't reveal it. "No, I don't think a face like this," my finger touched his cheek for barely a second, "could ever hide something. Or a body this wonderful," I took another step closer, my leg wound around his. He smiled lecherously for a moment before his knee buckled and a shocked gasp passed his lips. He sunk to the ground and my foot shoved his shoulder so that he was well below me, like a slave.

"Pen." Quickly and with a ghost of a scowl he reached into his jacket pocket and dropped the pen into my hand. "Pathetic," I snickered, before picking up my books and stalking out of the classroom. As much fun as I had getting him onto his knees, he really ruined my mood.

"I feel all dirty," I shuddered, stuffing my things into my locker, grabbing my lunch and standing up again. "Like I haven't washed for months."

"Why?" Sheik asked from behind me. Woah, I hadn't realised he was there.

"You... she... the... what the hell?" Tetra burst all of a sudden. She had followed me from the classroom, now standing with an utterly bewildered look on her face. It was amusing, to say the least.

"You're incoherent, Tet. Words are your friend," Sheik teased. "What are you trying to say, exactly?"

"Zelda... Dude, what the hell is with that? Since when are you so... mean?" Tetra asked. A feral grin crossed my face.

"You've known me, what? Like three, four days? You don't know how mean I can be," I replied.

"Stop joking. You are not a violent person. Most of the time," she added as an afterthought. "But seriously, where did that move come from?"

"A friend taught it to me, just in case," I shrugged.

"What did you do?" Sheik asked.

"I... kneed Fetim? To get my pen back."

"Must have been something," Sheik commented with a smirk.

"It was awesome," Tetra assured, making me chuckle.

"Oh, can we stop at the drinking taps? I need to wash my finger." I held up my pointer finger. "It touched him." Sheik and Tetra burst out laughing. I couldn't figure out what exactly what was so funny.

Sitting down in the same spot as recess, after going via that taps, Tetra opened her mouth to say something when another voice called out.

"Sheik!" I turned to see another boy walking towards us. Well, loping would probably the more appropriate word. He was wearing a faded black jumper over his uniform, and had long, black hair, which hung on his shoulders and around his face. He was grinning, his white teeth giving a strange contrast to his dark hair and sparkling red eyes. I looked at Sheik questioningly, but he didn't see me.

Sheik scrambled to his feet, and ran forward to meet the strange boy. They punched fists and the strange boy put his arm around Sheik's shoulders.

"Dark!" Tetra exclaimed. She, too, got to her feet and ran forward to meet him. I sat their alone, staring at him with curiosity. Dark? What a strange name.

I stood as well, if only to escape the strange sensation of everyone towering over me.

"Hey. I'm Dark," he introduced, still grinning widely.

"Hi. Zelda," I replied, feeling just a tiny bit... scared. I swear, his canines were sharper than most peoples.

We sat down again, Dark already talking animatedly to Sheik about his holidays.

"-then all the wasps were chasing me. And I was screaming at the top of my voice, running like an idiot into my house. Then I slowed down, and the wasps started stinging me, then I started to run faster again. And then when I was inside, I collapsed on a chair and was, like, really itchy. After about half an hour, I was all red and blotchy, 'cause the wasp stings had gotten inflamed. Then my mum found me on the couch, and she was like, 'Holy Farore, we have to get you to a doctor!' We argued for over an hour until she got out this really smelly cream stuff that she made me rub all over myself and then she looked on the internet, and it turns out that I'm actually allergic to wasp stings," he finished triumphantly.

"So what did you end up doing? You go to a doctor?" Sheik asked.

"No!" Dark looked horrified. "The swelling went away after about a week and the itchiness is gone now too. No biggy." Dark waved a hand, as if the idea of going to a doctor was stupid. Tetra and Sheik laughed. I smiled unconsciously. This guy was _strange._

After a few minutes, I found myself laughing at Dark's jokes as well. Actually, I think I was laughing at Dark himself, more than anything. He had a strong opinion about everything it seemed. About halfway into lunch, Senra walked up to us.

"Hey," she waved, smiling with a little blush in on her cheeks.

"Hi," Tetra said.

"Hi," Sheik mumbled.

"Hellooo!" Dark yelled, laying down in Sheik's lap. I simply waved.

"Do you think I could hang around with you for the rest of lunch? Irin went home because she _felt sick_..." she trailed off, looking to the empty car park murderously. Sheik shoved Dark off him.

"Sure," Tetra said, waving her down. I coughed, trying to choke back a laugh. Sheik and Dark grinned at each other, and Senra edged a little closer to me nervously.

We all sat in silence for a second, before a cracking sound came from somewhere. I spun my head around, searching for the sound. My eyes scanned over Tetra, who was facing the other way searching for the sound too, Senra, who was looking at the ground and ignoring the sound, Sheik, who was smirking and staring at something, and Dark, who was eating a stick. _Wait, what! Dark was eating a stick? This guy was way past the brink of insanity. _

I stared at Dark, raising my eyebrow. Tetra sniggered when she realised. Apparently, this behaviour was normal. Senra looked a way past scared. Dark was grinning stupidly, still chewing the stick. He paused for a moment, glanced down at the stick then spat out the bits from his mouth. The majority of them landed on Sheik.

"Oy!" he roared, jumping up, brushing himself off as best he could then lunging at the black haired boy. Dark rolled away neatly, licked the length of the stick and flicked it at Tetra. It wasn't long before we were all on our feet, running away from licked, bitten and generally mauled sticks thrown or spat at us by Dark. It was at that moment that I swore that I had made some insane friends.

I hid behind a tree, letting out a slow breath. I leaned against the trunk of the plant heavily as I sunk down to my haunches, closing my eyes tight. My head was pounding, and this time I hadn't even taken any pills! I heard feet approaching me, but ignored them. They stopped fairly close, and it was quiet for a moment. A hand touched my shoulder, and then there was fingers tickling me. My eyes snapped open and I squirmed and giggled, unable to stop myself. Dark hair hung in front of my face, the unmistakeable grin visible from underneath it.

"Dammit, Dark, stop tickling me!" I squealed, still twitching under his fingers. Sheik grinned, coming up behind Dark. The grin was huge and made him look almost frighteningly evil. He pounced on Dark, tickling his ferociously. Immediately, my own torture stopped. I looked up to see Dark lying on his back, almost convulsing with silent laughter as Sheik and Tetra tickled him.

"S... Stop," Dark gasped breathlessly. They took pity on him, Sheik pinching the back of his neck before withdrawing. Dark stayed on the ground, rubbing his stomach and taking deep breaths.

"That wasn't nice Sheik."

"Aw, you know you would've done the same to me if the opportunity arose. And besides, we can't have you tickling Zelda right now. What's she gonna think of us?" Sheik replied, flopping down next to his friend. I smiled.

"At least I know I'm not the only one who's ticklish," Dark countered happily.

"You'd better not use that knowledge against me," I warned, half kidding, bringing my fists up to my chest.

"What are you going to do, hug me?" he asked dryly.

"I may just have to," I replied, looking mockingly grave.

"I'd bet if you try that move on Dark, he'd fall flat on face and start crying," Tetra suggested.

"You just try it," Dark challenged. "You don't have the guts to do anything to me. You wouldn't even be _able _to hug me!" Dark flexed his virtually non-existent arm muscles.

"Arm wrestle?"

"Absolutely." Dark stood and walked over a shady spot under a tree. We lay on our stomachs opposite each other, elbows on the uneven ground. We grasped hands tightly, waiting for Sheik as he lay down too and placed in palm in the space under our hands.

"Alright, here are the rules. No cheating. No sabotaging the other person. And no eating sticks." He added the last bit on with a glance at Dark. "Three, two, one, fight!"

My muscles tensed from the word go, but it was a while before I realised why I didn't feel any pressure coming from Dark. It was a competition to see who got impatient first.

Unfortunately for me, I had never been a very patient person.

I pushed against his hand, immediately feeling the returning pressure. I smiled as his hand went down a little, then sobered as he pressed harder and suddenly it was mine that was getting closer to the ground. I let the pressure die down a little bit and felt Dark's lessen too. I adjusted myself slightly on the grass, pushing his hand marginally closer to the ground by chance. I sighed, then pushed as hard as I could, grinning as I felt his hand touch the ground, mine on top.

"I win!" I rejoiced.

"You don't fight fair!" Dark accused.

"Hey, I do so! I followed all the rules, didn't I Sheik?"

"She did, Dark." He turned to his friend. "You got beaten by a girl," he laughed.

"Yeah, because you've _never_ been beaten by me before," Tetra but in, shoving her friend so that he was lying on his back.

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Oh, so don't I classify as a girl, is that it?" she growled as he scrambled to his feet, running away from her as fast as he could.

"No! I didn't mean it like that!" he yelled over his shoulder, the brunette catching up to him fast.

"Of course you didn't," she shouted back caustically. Sheik ran to a tree, jumped at it, placing his foot on a low stump and flinging himself on to one of the lower branches. Quickly, he climbed higher, panting as he smiled a little as he looked down at his friend. She was shaking her fist at him, shouting threats too violent to leave anyone but Sheik sane after hearing them.

"I want a rematch," Dark said to me as we walked back to the locker bay. It had taken us the rest of lunch time to convince Tetra to back off and Sheik to come down the tree.

"Sure," I agreed. "Name a time."

"I'll... let you know when. Just let me grow some muscles first," he muttered, poking at his skinny arm.

"Don't mind me asking but... what was with eating sticks before?"

"I wasn't eating them," he explained. "I was merely biting into them, chewing them and spitting them out regardless of what or who was in my way."

"... Do they taste good?"

"Eh, they're a little bland. Could do with some salt, maybe some pepper. And they're a little hard and quite chewy, but I guess that's a given." I laughed at his analysis of the sticks.

"You sound like a professional."

"Maybe I could a professional food taster!"

"Maybe," I agreed. "But I'm not completely sure that all the food would taste too different to sticks."

"Not to mention that you'd grow a little chubby," Link added, looking up from searching through his locker.

"Hey bro!" Dark replied loudly, walking up to Link and fist bumping him.

"Hey Zel. Staying off the pills?" Link teased.

"... shut up," I growled, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Aren't you just a bag of fun?" he laughed. "You'd better not scare her off in her first week, Dark."

"Aw, don't ruin my fun," Dark answered, his eyes alight with mischief.

"You know each other pretty well," I stated, looking between.

"Dark's my third of fourth cousin, or something like that. Some times removed and probably a few times added," Link said, counting his faulty calculations on his fingers. Dark poked his shoulder.

"I think I'm a few more times removed. The less related I am to you, the better," Dark insisted. Link gave him a shove.

"Being even vaguely related to someone as good looking, popular and of course, successful guy that I am could have its advantages," Link insisted, sticking his nose into the air and failing at looking pompous.

"Meh," Dark shrugged. "Even more reason for me not to be seen with you. Besides, you're not popular, good looking, and when was the last time you got more than sixty percent on a test?"

"Fine. Be that way. When I become the most successful guy in the world, with people telling me from every which way how good looking I am, you can come grovelling at my feet, begging to be seen with me again." He turned his back to Dark.

"Fine." Dark turned his back to Link.

"Fine." The pair looked in opposite directions for a few moments, then snorted in unison. They turned around again and embraced like the old friends they were.

"Hey! I forgot I had this!" Dark suddenly exclaimed, suddenly digging his hand deep into his jacket pocket and pulling out his iPod. He wandered away, looking intently at the little screen.

"How'd you like him?" Link asked, gesturing with his head towards his cousin.

"He's... strange. Very entertaining, though."

"He takes a little getting used to, but I'm sure you'll like him soon enough," he laughed.

I found Dark again, sitting on a plank of wood, fiddling with the device in his hands. He shook it violently.

"Gah! Is it _meant _to change songs every few seconds?" he cried.

"Uh, no, I don't think so. Have you dropped it lately?"

"About five times. Every hour," he replied, shaking his head. "I guess that explains it."

"You should try looking through the settings," Sheik called out from inside the locker bay, where he had escaped from Tetra's wrath. "I'd bet you pressed something funny."

There was a minute of silence while Dark fiddled. "...Ooh. Woops."

(xxx)

I couldn't help a glance back at the school grounds from half ways up the hill home. Thinking of my new friends made me smile, especially considering how fast they seemed to accept me. I sobered hurriedly as I remembered what awaited me at home. My first exam was in two days and I still had a stack of books and exercises to be finished.

Dad opened the door, still looking down at the book in his hands. He smiled at me half way up the corridor. There it was. The 'time to start torturing Zelda' smile.

I meandered into the kitchen and started assembling a sandwich with anything I could find.

"Are those the only pages I have to do?" I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm. The book had at least twenty bookmarked pages and I seriously hoped that they would be all.

"For now," he replied. He tossed the closed book across the couch and picked up another. "I'll look through a few others and mark a few more pages." He paused his searching to look up at me seriously. "Remember, your first exam is on Saturday morning. Just finish these pages, and I'll give you tomorrow off. Just relax." I almost smiled, but the thought of all the work I had to do today turned it into a grimace.

I was jumpy. My hands shook uncontrollably and my breathing was uneven. I heard the jingle of my pencils crashing together in the pencil case I was holding, but when I loosened my grip on it, it only shook more. My dad looked down at me, smiled faintly, then took my hand.

I didn't snatch away from it, as I usually would've. The warmth from his hand was supportive. My breathing slowed, and I stopped shaking. As we entered the main building, I looked around. Students and their parents milled around everywhere, talking and laughing. I spotted only a few people who stood alone, not talking to anyone and looking very sullen.

At a desk that was presumably meant to be the entrance, one of attendant ladies handed me a nametag and gave us instruction in where to go. By now, most of the crowd around me had started t move up the flight of stairs on my right, half hidden by shadows.

We moved with the crowd, squeezing ourselves between bodies. I glanced down at my nametag.

_Zelda Harkinian_

_Room 24_

_Desk 18_

I looked around at the rooms near me. Room 21... Room 22... Room 23... Room 24, there it was. I looked at my dad. He squeezed my hand in encouragement and put his hands firmly on my shoulders, staring me right in the eyes.

"Don't worry about anything. Just try your best. That's all anyone could ask for." He squeezed my shoulders gently. "Go on." He gave me a shove toward the stairs. I sauntered forward, taking one last glance at him before entering the room. He smiled at me reassuringly. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door.

(xxx)

Fiddling with the phone in my pocket only seemed to make it heavier. My eyes were frantically trying to seek out my father, who hadn't appeared yet. I had called him twice, but received no answer.

"Zelda!" a voice called. I spun around gratefully, recognising it.

"Dad!" I waved to him, standing on my toes so that he could see me. He jogged over to me, enveloping me in a big hug before stepping back.

"Sorry I was late. The tour went over time and I couldn't find my way back here without a guide," he explained. I nodded. It was so like him to go on the three hour tour of the campus whilst I sat in the exam.

He took my hand again as we walked back to the car.

"So, how was it?" he asked eagerly. I sighed. I had known this part had been coming.

"It went fine. I was well prepared." I smiled crookedly at him. "That's what comes from so much extra preparation."

"I knew all that extra stuff would come in handy," he said, mostly complementing himself. "Which paper was first?"

"Math and science, then reading comprehension. After our break we did the two writing pieces."

"How did you find the math? Was it hard? How much of the science aspect was in it? Did you –"

"Hey! One question at a time!"

"Sorry. Tell me about it," he prompted.

"I already said, it was fine. I was sort of math... written in scientific terms. There wasn't a huge focus on it, so I was okay. I got all forty questions finished in the half hour, and had a few minutes to check over it."

"Good," he approved, nodding. "What about the rest?"

We spent the rest of the half hour drive home discussing the tests, and all the different possibilities and ideas I could've used during the writing pieces. As we drove up the driveway, I stopped the flow of his voice.

"That's enough talk about exams. I believe you promised to take me out for dinner tonight."

"I did," he agreed. "Where do you want to go?"

"The Pizza Palace in Hylia, where else?" I said. The Pizza Palace had been my favourite restaurant since I was in primary school. Dad used to buy pizza from there on the way home from school whenever there was a special occasion.

"In that case, I think I'd better book us a table," he sighed, and opened the car door. I smiled and walked to the front door.

Inside the house, I went straight upstairs and locked myself in my bedroom. Collapsing on the bed, I closed my eyes and simply listened to the sound of my breathing. When I was relaxed, I sat up and rifled through the blankets on the bed. Finding my book, I opened it to the page I had left it at and started to read.

After maybe fifteen minutes, I was absorbed in the book. I was curled awkwardly in my blankets, reading with all my concentration. Though I had read this book before, it was just as good, if not better, than the first time. Just as I turned a page, the phone started ringing. I ignored it, knowing someone else would answer if I didn't.

But it just kept ringing. Groaning, I disentangled myself and slammed the door open. I ran toward the phone, but just as I reached to pick it up, it stopped ringing. I heard a voice downstairs talking. I opened my mouth to shout something not very nice, but I closed it again as someone shouted for me.

"Zelda! Phone!" Dad shouted. I ran down the stairs and past him, grabbing the phone from his hand as I went.

"Hello?" I spoke into the phone breathlessly.

"Hi Zelda!" A cheerful voice greeted me from the other end.

"Shayla!" I shrieked in excitement. "How are you?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. How was your first week at a new school?"

"Fine, I guess."

"Got any new friends?" she asked.

"Geez, Shay, you sound so doubtful. I'm not that turnoff-ish am I?"

"Of course not. Otherwise I wouldn't be talking to you right now. But you didn't tell me. Any new friends?"

"Umm… I guess so. There's a nice girl in my class named Tetra. I hang around with her and her best friend, Sheik, and I met another boy, Dark, a few days ago."

"And… how are they?"

"Pretty nice, I guess, though I still miss all my friends from Hylia. Sheik's nice, and funny. Tetra is great to be around, but she reminds a lot of an old friend. Dark is just… well he's different, but cool."

"Not cooler than me, I hope." I laughed. I could picture Shayla's pouting face.

"Not yet. But beware, you may have some competition soon," I warned.

"Whatever. Anyone else? What about your new classmates?"

"There's a few nice girls and boys, I suppose. But there are also the stupid, annoying or just shallow people. One boy tried to steal my pen on Thursday!"

"Which pen? Not the one that your mother gave to you…"

"That's the one," I clarified.

"What an idiot," she commented. "What did you do?"

"Just a little trick that Jalum taught me." I began to describe the incapacitation trick I'd used. Jalum was a family friend, and had taught it to me years ago, just before I began grade three. _Use it for self defence only. That, and if you really want to scare someone, _I remembered his words. This had been the first time I'd used it in a couple of years. The last time I had to was when I was trying to separate my two best friends during a fight in year 8.

Fiddling with the aforementioned pen as I talked, I remembered Fetim's expression while he was on the ground and smiled. He really shouldn't have tried to steal it. My mother had given it to me a couple of days before she had died eight years ago. The memory of her still brought tears to my eyes. _But if it didn't, _I reminded myself, _it would mean you had forgotten her. You'd never forgive yourself for _that_. _

The conversation continued. Shayla and I always had something to talk about, no matter how long it had been since the last time I spoke to her. The topics blossomed from my school to hers. My friends, to hot guys, to her friends, to her family, to my plans, to her plans…

The conversation wouldn't run out anytime soon.

"Zelda!" Dad called from upstairs.

"Just wait a sec," I whispered into the phone. "Yes?" I called back.

"Get off the phone. We're leaving in a few minutes and I have to make a call before we do."

"Okay," I sighed. I hadn't realised what the time was. I must've been talking for over an hour. I turned back to the phone. "I'm sorry Shay. I have to go now. We're going out for dinner and –"

"- And your dad doesn't like to be late," she finished. "I know. Call next weekend, or even during the week if you want."

"I will. Okay, bye," I said.

"Bye," came the faint reply, before the line disconnected. I put the phone back on its charger and ran halfway up the stairs.

"I'm off the phone, Dad," I called. A small grunt came from his behind his closed door. Walking back downstairs, I sat on the couch and picked up some paper and a pen and started to sketch absentmindedly. I had been overjoyed to talk to Shayla. We had been great friends ever since… ever since we had known each other.

What, with our parents being best friends, and we used to live really close to each other. I had known her ever since she was a few days old. Of course, I don't remember that long ago, since she was born only 9 months after me. We talked almost every week, out conversations always being something that I looked forward to.

Midna came and plopped down onto the couch next to me. She leant against my left arm and looked at my drawing.

"Nice," she nodded appreciatively. I snorted.

"It's a cartoon _scribble _and you're calling it nice?"

"it could be taken as interpretive, I guess," she answered. "Whatever. Come on, we're leaving now." She grabbed my spare hand and pulls me off the couch.

"Where's Dad?" I asked.

"Taking his pills. He said he'd be down in a minute." Pills? That was new… and worrying. I didn't know he was sick. _But if it were something major, something to be worrying about, he would have told us… right? _my conscious reasoned. Great. Now my conscious was unsure.

"What are the pills for?" I asked her, not completely sure if I wanted to know the answer or not.

"I think he said it was just a sore throat or stomach ache, or something like that." She shrugged. "Nothing huge, I'm certain. If it was, I would've remembered." I cracked a weak smile at that. Midna would've told me earlier if she was worried.

"Let's hope it doesn't stop him eating, shall we?"

"Hah! Stop Dad eating pizza? You would have to knock him unconscious and run him through for that!" Midna and I laughed. It was probably true.

"What are you two laughing about?" came his booming voice.

"I was thinking, Dad. Since this is my special treat, how about I pay for Midna and I, and you can come along just as a chauffer? Don't worry; we won't make you wait in the car. You can sit at our table and watch us as we eat," I joked.

"What in the name of Din makes you think that I'd just sit there? I'd just strangle you both and eat all the pizza, then blame it on the butler with the candlestick," he said, quoting an old board game we used to play.

"We don't have a butler, and neither does the Pizza Palace. And what makes you think I'd let you strangle me without a fight?" Midna countered.

Laughing, all three of us left the house for my celebratory dinner.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Slinging my bag over my back, I hurried towards the school gates, eager to get home. The teacher had held us back, and thanks to the inconvenient placement of my locker, I was probably the last student in the school.

The sun was beating down on me. It was not warm, though it did provided some welcome light and comfort. It hung in front of my eyes, so my vision was slightly blurred. I hurried a little more, eager to turn away from its glare. In my hastiness, I bumped into something. Something large enough to make me fall to the ground.

Picking myself up, I opened my mouth to mutter an oath, until I saw what was looking down on me. It took me a few seconds to register that the 'what' was actually a 'who'. My eyes widened as the figure sneered at me. I quickly tried to scramble away, making an about-turn and walking back down the hill towards the lockers.

Then another figure stepped in front of me. I stopped again, and my eyes travelled from his chest to his face. _Holy Goddesses_ he was big. My conscious was going crazy, telling me to run before I did anything stupid, just for the sheer size of him. I inspected him a bit closer, my mind registering the uniform as that of the Sports Academy. Hell.

The Sports Academy was made out of students who wished to pursue a career in sport. Along with the basic math, English and science, they had extra periods dedicated to playing sport. In my few weeks here, the few I had encountered had been nasty. They strutted about the school as if they owned it, taking anything they wanted from others and playing evil pranks on other students. While most people wanted only to stay away from them, some girls were constantly swooning over them, claiming they were the most attractive boys in the whole school.

Attractive... admittedly yes. Nice, no. Awe worthy, most definitely no. Evil, mostly yes. Personally, I almost went out of my way to avoid getting hit by their one of their balls.

And now they'd surrounded me.

I look around myself. More than ten boys stood in a loose circle around me, a few metres away. I didn't bother trying to recognise them. I didn't personally know any sports academy boys. Spinning around, I spotted two smaller figures in the circle. They look strangely familiar, but in the glare of sunlight I couldn't quite tell who they are…

"This her?" one of the tall, burly guys asked.

"Zelda, the new girl." One of the shorted confirmed. If this situation hadn't been chilling, I would've sighed. Vaati and Kafei. Vaati was regarding me sadistically, and Kafei simply stared.

"That was easy!" one of the others proclaimed. "What should we do with her?"

"Whatever you want, Ganondorf. She needs to learn her place," Vaati said mildly, still grinning.

"Good idea," Ganondorf agrees. He was the biggest of the lot, the one I bumped into. Damn sun.

The circle around me begun to tighten. A group of the boys approached me, Ganondorf in the lead. My eyes widened even more, and I automatically dropped my bag and took a step back… hitting something else. Boy, would I like to give the person who invented circles a few stern words. Did they have to make it so there was no opening?

I tottered forward again, stopping myself so I didn't crash into the figure in front of me. As I looked up, and I really had to look up, my eyes narrowed as it narrowed on Ganondorf's evil smile.

"Back off, boys. This one's mine," he ordered. Immediately, the circle was no more. It was only Ganondorf and I. Oh joy.

"Don't you dare touch me," I spat. I hoped I looked more menacing than I felt.

"Why? You're outnumbered and defenceless. I could take you out in a second," he gloated easily. Damn him and his words that were probably true.

"But you wouldn't. You won't do it on your own."

"Of course not," he answered stupidly. An oaf, I surmised, but one with more than enough followers.

"I'm warning you. The last boy who annoyed me ended up on the ground under my foot. If you want the same fate, keep doing what you're doing." It was getting harder to look menacing as I looked up, the sun's glare making my eyes water.

"What are you going to do? Take all ten of us on at once?" He turned to Vaati, his red hair catching the sun and looking almost on fire. "Reckon I could have her after this?"

"I don't reckon you'd want someone with a face as bad as hers will be in a minute, Ganon," Vaati crowed. It took Ganondorf a moment to gain his meaning. As he turned his eyes back to me, I hit him full in the face with my bag and ran.

I ran back down the hill and past the lockers. I ran straight to the oval. I could hear footsteps behind me, so I didn't dare slow down. In the middle of the oval, some part of my brain finally registered where I was, and I looked around myself with annoyance. I had run to the biggest, most open space in the whole damn school. Now, there was nowhere to hide, and they were so close, I could hear them.

I spun on my heel and ran blindly again, for the sake of simply getting away. Putting one foot before the other for as long as I was able was the extent of my plan.

Turning the corner and around the gym, I risked taking another glance behind me, but subsequently crashed into someone. He felt as hard as a damn brick wall. What was wrong with these sports academy boys? Why couldn't they be normal?

The boy picked me up roughly and threw me back onto the ground, almost snarling. A distracted part of my mind wondered desperately if there was some wolf in bred in him.

I landed on the hard dirt with a thud. My bones rattled dangerously in my body, and my breathing became harsher. Another pair of hands picked me up, just as roughly as the first. He held me upright, and I found myself staring into his black, piggy eyes. Ganondorf smiled evilly once again.

Over his shoulder, I saw Vaati smirking appreciatively and Kafei still staring at me. I felt a rush of anger.

I couldn't even hold my voice steady. _"What have I ever done to you?"_

Vaati looked mockingly ponderous for a moment. "I'm not sure if you realised or not, but you almost turned Link against us. You know, after six years of friendship, Link was forced away from us by you. I'm making sure that doesn't happen again."

"Me?" I squeaked. I had planned for my voice to come out a lot stronger than that, and a more substantial noise to come from my mouth, but Ganondorf had me pinned to the rusting metal of the gym wall by my throat.

Vaati snorted disdainfully. He turned to mutter something to Kafei, and then walked away. Kafei looked at me, a strange emotion in his eyes. Almost… guilt? An apology, perhaps. Then he, too, turned and walked away. I was still pinned to the gym by Ganondorf.

I gave Ganondorf, the great pig, my best attempt at a glare.

"Let me go," I rasped. My limbs were starting to become numb. That was not a good sign when your breathing is constricted.

"No deal," he laughed loudly. "I think we'll have some fun with you." He looked at his followers and nodded. He let my throat go for a moment, letting me fall to my senseless feet, then tossed me to one of the others. At the last moment, he took a step to the side and I landed on the ground. Again.

"Oops. Sorry, chick," he sneered. Hauling me up, he threw me hard against the wall of the gym. The contact made a subdued clang, and I could think no more than that I was disappointed that the sound had not been larger.

Opening one eye blearily, I looked at Ganondorf who was bending toward me. His arms came towards me, and in an instant motion, I grabbed him. My nails dug into his dirty skin, holding him back. He looked stunned for a second, looking down at my hands, then he regained his confidence and twisted his arm to the side.

I wasn't prepared for that. I let go of his left arm as he twisted. Seeing his chance, Ganondorf grabbed my left arm and twisted it at an ungodly angle. I heard a faint snap, then pain surged through my arm and into my shoulder. I let out a weak whimper at the intensity of the pain, but before I could do anything else, Ganondorf had lifted me up to my feet once again, holding only onto my broken arm. _Why couldn't they just leave me be?_

A shrill yowl escaped my lips. Ganondorf laughed haughtily, shaking my arm ever so slightly. I bit my lip and an instant late, the rusty taste of blood filled my mouth. Another of Ganondorf's cronies came forward, looking ever so lecherous. I didn't bother to think before I lifted up my good fist and punched his jaw.

I almost smiled as I saw him stagger, but then Ganondorf released my wrist and dropped me to the ground. Pain surged through my veins in place of blood.

"That wasn't clever," I heard him say. I couldn't let the irony of that slip.

"I'm not sure what you're doing to me is clever either, yet, here we are." It seemed that my statement slipped past Ganondorf's thick skull and he walked forward and kicked my side. I felt the air rush out of my lungs.

It wasn't long before I had several people kicking me. I heard a couple of them laugh when I coughed violently and tried to take a breath. When I let out a sound, one of them kicked my head. The back of my skull seemed to slam into the top of my spine.

"Stop," I begged pathetically. "Please... stop." The strength of my voice was minuscule.

"Hah!"

My side had been split open with the toe of a spiked shoe. I could feel blood leaving from the cut mush faster than was safe. I tried to open my eyes, but the world spun dangerously.

Someone pulled me up again. I imagined I looked something like a rag doll, allowing myself to be thrown around. And thrown I was, by a large pair of hands, into the corrugated wall of the gymnasium. I seemed to fall to the ground in painful slow motion. One last boot slammed into the side of my already battered head. When I heard receding footsteps, I attempted to open my eyes again, but they barely had the strength to flutter.

After a few minutes of silence I found strength I did not know I had. I heaved myself up a little way, lifted my eyelids up with great pains and dragged myself... somewhere. Again I did not particularly care where I ended up, as long as I was away from here. The ground looked as if it was soaked with blood. _My_ blood.

My hands moved to my side as I felt a rough wave of nausea. I looked down, only to see them already covered with blood. I couldn't distinguish the pain in my side from any of the other hurt that seemed to take up my entire being now.

I collapsed back against the metal of the building, a grunt escaping my lips as my knees gave way.

The only coherent thought that registered in my mind was that I had left my bag with my phone in it. Then all my senses shut down.

(xxx)

"Hello?"

"_Hello? Link?" The male voice on the other side of the line was panicked. _

"Yeah, that's me. Uh, who-"

"_I'm Daphnes Harkinian. Zelda's father."_

"Oh, hi, Mr Harkinian. How'd you get my number?"

"_Zelda's phone." _I heard him take a deep breath.

"Oh, alrigh-"

"_Have you seen her?"_

"Um, what? Seen... No, no! I haven't seen her since school ended. Uh, why, isn't she..."

"_I don't know where she is." _His voice cracked slightly at the end of the sentence, all his worry creeping into his last two words.

"I'll... find her." I repeated it, more to make myself sure than anything else. "I'll find her, sir."

"_I'm sorry I called you... You're the only one of her friends I know... and I don't know-"_

"I'll find her," I assured him again.

I slowed as I came to the school gates, Dark pulling up on his own bike beside me.

"Where do we start?" he asked me.

"Uh, you go 'round to the entrance near the office. I'll go in through here. Call me if you... find h... anything."

It wasn't hard to spot Zelda's bag lying just up the hill from the lockers. To find it simply abandoned there almost sent me into panic.

I did a circle of the locker bay, and the buildings near it. I started heading towards the art block when my phone rung.

"Dark?" I asked breathlessly. Please….

"Gym," he choked, then the line went dead.

I swear the gym had never seemed so far away.

Dark was kneeling beside a motionless form, something that looked closer to a bloody heap than a person.

"Zelda," I whispered. She didn't look promising. Dark's hand hesitantly went to rest on the side of her neck, probing gently. The world seemed still for a moment.

"She's still got a pulse," he sighed gratefully. "But we've got to do something, soon." He poked her slightly on the side of her head. "Zel? Zelda, can you hear me?" No response.

"I'll... call an ambulance?" It involuntarily came out as a question. Dark was better at these things than me.

"Yes," he confirmed.

The call to emergency services didn't take long, thankfully, but it did bring to mind that I didn't know how she had actually been so badly injured. It looked as if she had tried to jump off the roof, but I doubted that was had happened.

When I returned to Dark and Zelda, he promptly told me to take off my jumper. He took it quickly, pressing it against her side firmly.

"I think all the blood she's lost is from here. And I think her arm is broken, if not partially severed off." Indeed, it was bent at an unnatural angle.

A slight breeze blew by and it scared me to see Zelda almost shudder at the cold. I rubbed my hand up her non-injured arm, knowing it did no good to her, but still made me feel as if I was helping a little.

The ambulance drove into the school and a woman and a man, both dressed in white, jumped out of it and swiftly came towards us.

"No need to ask who the patient is," the woman assessed quickly. Dark moved out of the way as she took his spot. The lady checked her pulse, then her temperature. "How long has she been unconscious for?"

"We're... not entirely sure. We just came here by request of her father to search for her..."

"And you two are?"

"I'm Dark, and he's Link. We're Zelda's friends."

"Ah."

"She'll, uh, be alright, won't she?" I burst suddenly. The question had been gnawing at me.

"I think so, kid. I think so." She turned and called to the man, who stood near the ambulance arranging equipment to me bought over. "Get the other two out and bring a stretcher over, too!"

I cringed as the four of them moved Zelda onto the stretcher. The process was slow, painstakingly so. At one point, Zelda gave a shuddering heave of an exhalation, and everyone seemed to cease movement. I didn't realise that I had stopped breathing until the paramedics began to move her again.

Dark and I climbed into the back of the ambulance at the woman's beckoning. I let my eyes wander as we drove away from the school, looking anywhere but the almost motionless body in front of me.

"Do you know how this happened?" the woman asked. Ah. The dreaded question, the answer to which belongs to someone unknown. I shook my head in response.

"I didn't even know that she hadn't gone home until her father..." My head snapped up suddenly. "Damn! Her father!" My fumbling fingers pulled my phone from my pocket as I located Mr Harkinian's number and dialled.

"_Hello?" _

"We found her," I said, a little hesitantly. I'm not sure if he would approve, let alone expect, the condition in which we found her.

"_Where is she? How is she? Can I speak to her?" _His voice flooded with relief, but there was still an edge of tension to it.

"Uh..." The lady paramedic held out her hand. I gave the phone to her and she brought it to her ear and began explaining to Zelda's father quietly. It was a few minutes before she handed the phone back to me. I put it back to my ear.

"_Link?" _he confirmed.

"I'm here."

"_Good. Stay with her... please."_

"I will sir, don't worry."

"_And keep your phone on you so when I get there you can tell me where you are." _I couldn't hear the sound of a car starting in the background.

"Of course."

"_Thanks, son." _I know a welcome would have been polite, but his last word choked me up. Never, for all the time my memory stretches back, had I been called _son._

Dark and I were in the hospital waiting room for near an hour. In this time, Zelda's father had joined us, engulfing both Dark and I into a hug that, if it had been any firmer, broken all my bones.

Finally, a nurse walked out and motioned us in to her room.

The sight of her chilled me. One arm was wrapped in plaster and gauze, the other had needles in it. An IV was paced beside her bed, and several bottles of long-named medicines were on the table next to it. There was almost no colour in her cheeks as she lay there on her side, the only indication that she was alive was the little rise and fall of her chest.

Her father rushed forward at once to flutter around her, snatching information from the doctor as he paused.

"I'll... be outside," I mumbled to Dark as I headed out the door. I reclaimed my waiting room seat, and after a moment or two, I saw Dark's feet approach me. He sat down beside me.

"I just spoke to the doctor," he told me quietly. "He says that she should be alright, but it'll take a little time. Nothing huge was severed in her side, though she did bleed a lot." I simply nodded dumbly. He nudged me. "What's up?"

"I really wish I knew who did this to her," I replied, my fists curling into tight balls and my eyes narrowing. "They wouldn't live for much longer."

"I don't think it was one person who did that to her."

"Huh?"

"I just don't think that one person could've done all that damage to her, and still been able to walk out of the school without leaving a trace. It's just... not plausible."

"Well, damn! I can't take on a gang on my own. Even I'm not that much of an idiot!"

"Hey, you'll have me," Dark pointed out, uncharacteristically serious. "And I'm certain Sheik and Tetra too, once we tell 'em. And probably your other friends, the strange ones... Who are they again?"

"Vaati and Kafei. And they'd never do anything to help out Zelda. She's been at the school, what, half a term? And they're already talking like she's been their enemy for a decade!"

"Whatever. Always got me," he assured me.

"Thanks." His words made me feel a lot safer.

"...Reckon we could go? Doc said that she was going to be out for a while, so I don't see the point in staying." Dark sounded truly eager to leave.

"In a hurry?" I laughed.

"I don't like hospitals much," he confided as we began to walk down the corridor the lifts. "They're so white and clean... and the medicinal smell makes me want to hurl... And there's sick people everywhere, and the mood is so depressive... And all the nurses are always so-"

"I got it. You really hate hospitals."

"You know, one nurse even asked me if 'those were fresh bits I had on my arm and if I needed something to help them heal'." He scowled disgustedly. "Those scars are months old! I swear that lady was on-"

"Got it, Dark!" I stopped him. Insulting the hospital, from right outside the hospital, could not be a clever thing to do. He suddenly stopped to look around, as if surprised at where we were.

"Hey Link... How are we going to get home? My bike is still parked outside the school."

"I have a friend who lives around here. She could give us a ride back, I guess."

"An ex?" he leered teasingly.

"Shut up and start walking," I growled.

(xxx)

The voices around me became clearer as my head cleared of hazy fog. The ringing in my ears had reduced to a numb tingle that was now all over my body. Moving my toes even a little sent shock waves through my body that seemed to bring it back to life. I listened closely.

"What are you doing?"

"They brought her a pie. She's not even conscious! I'm only doing her a favour be eating it for her." The voice sounded objective and guilty.

"Dark, you just wanted an excuse to eat the pie."

"Duh, Link. I couldn't help it. I couldn't let a perfect apple pie go to waste!" Dark argued. Both of them laughed.

"Do you think they would bring me some ice coffee if I asked nicely?" Dark mused, his mouth still half full. My eyes fluttered open.

"Not even if you try your hardest," I answered hoarsely. They both turned to look at me. Link's smile was perhaps the sweetest that anyone has ever given, and Dark's grin was childishly relieved.

"You're awake," Link stated, elated.

"... Just as I suspected," I replied, teasingly thoughtful. He rolled his eyes. It only took a slight adjustment of my neck to realise that my whole body ached considerably. Come to think of it, why were Dark and Link in my room? ... This wasn't my room. "Where am I?"

"Hyrule General Hospital," Dark replied, his grin wavering just a tiny bit. The half eaten pie in his hands was attracting my attention.

"Oh, al- Wait, what? Why... why am I in the hospital?" I tried moving, but as if in answer to my own question, my entire body felt limp and throbbing. "How long have I been here?"

"You've been in here two nights and a day, as it's currently Sunday morning. As to why you're here... that would be because of the huge amount of blood loss, the broken arm, a nerve in said arm that is not in working order and the bruises that you no doubt feel covering your body," Link informed me, keeping all emotion out of his voice.

I winced. "You still didn't tell me exactly what happened. Did I get run over by a car or something?"

"We're... not really sure, Zel."

"Your dad called Link on Friday afternoon when you didn't come home. We found you in the school... unconscious," Dark put in once Link looked away. "We called the ambulance, which is how you ended up here."

"What happened on Friday, after school?" Link snapped suddenly. I though furiously, but even the small action of my brow wrinkling as I did so hurt. I remembered only the Sports Academy, but there was something else...

"It was the Sports Academy... I think. They were pretty much the only ones still there when I was leaving. I remember bumping into the huge guy with red hair."

"Ganondorf," Link spat quietly.

"I guess... I guess I passed out...?" I finished lamely. The silence stretched out between us. Dark broke it.

"But there was more than one of them, wasn't there? You were outnumbered?" I nodded. I was sure there was more than one wall in my way as I tried to run. But there was still something... or someone...

"Just... forget it for now," Link comforted, though I'm not sure who he was trying to soothe, himself of me. "You're awake and talking, so that's something."

"Mmm..."

"Are you su-"

"Shut up, Link," Dark him off savagely. I looked at Link, apology in my eyes, because I'm sure I knew what he was going to ask.

"Sorry, Link," I whispered.

"It's fine. I'll get them anyway." His eyes were narrowed to slits. I put my hand on top of his, ignoring the pain as I moved it.

"Don't worry about it, really."

"Yeah, yeah, you say that. But look at where you are, and in such a terrible condition," he muttered ferociously to himself. His other hand eased over to a button on the wall and pressed it.

"What was that for?"

"Pain medication."

"But, but, I don't need any!" I defended pathetically. I attempted to sit up, and actually managed to throw my legs over the side of the bed, before starting to fall back on to the bed. Link's hands caught me and eased me back on to the sheets, lying as I had before. "I'm fine," I whined uselessly. Link snorted again.

"I see that," he observed sarcastically. "But don't try that again."

A nurse shuffled into the room pushing a little trolley before her. She headed over to the IV machine, which I had just noticed I was attached to. "This won't hurt, Miss Harkinian, but you're arm might feel a little cold for a few moments," she warned as the emptied the needle into the machine. I sighed. No helping it now.

"How long have you two been here?" I asked them when she had left.

"Since this morning. You're dad needed to go out, so we thought we'd stay with you for a while," Dark replied.

"Are you leaving now?" I asked, my eyelids already drooping shut a little.

"No, we're going to stay here... and do homework."

"You don't do homework, Link," I reminded him succinctly. I saw him grin as I forced my eyes to stay open. Damn these drowsiness causing medicines!

"Fine, fine, you caught us. We were going to play monopoly, actually." He reached under his chair and brought out the box.

"In that case, I'm damn glad I'm not going to be conscious for much longer. I hate that game."

Dark 'hmphed' pompously. "Well, since you don't care, I say we play now."

"Agreed," Link replied, opening the box and setting up the game on the table that was meant for food.

"Was the pie any good?" I asked drowsily to Dark.

"It wasn't bad, actually. Hungry?"

"No point, I'll be asleep before the food gets here." I yawned, and my eyes didn't re open. After a few moments of silence, I hear Link whisper, "I think she's asleep. Let's make our escape."

"Heard that," I said as loudly as I could muster. My voice was a little slurred.

"Shit," Dark mumbled quietly. "I'm the car!"

"No way, I'm the car!" Link objected.

"But you're always the car."

"Exactly. _I'm always_ the car!"

I heard little else after that, but before I gave in to the darkness, two names came to the front of my mind.

Vaati and Kafei.

* * *

**Authors Notes**

Yay! Fourth chapter's up, and it's earlier than I thought it would be.

Sorry for the lack of Author's Note in the last chapter. (I was meant to be doing homework, and my dad was halfway down the stairs...)

Well, Zelda finally has an enemy. Whoever thought Vaati and Kafei could be so evil? Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question.

My next chapter should be up soon, hopefully in about a week.

Please, please, please review.

Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The voices got louder too quickly for my liking. I hastily attempted to stuff my book behind my pillow after I scribbled down my last answer. Sheik wasn't able to help himself as he came to the curtain; he flung it theatrically out of his way and al but struck a pose. Tetra shoved him playfully. I couldn't help but smile.

"How you goin', Zel?" Sheik sing-songed.

"Not bad, considering where I am." Tetra wrapped her arms around me gingerly, trying obviously hard so not to bring back any old pains. As I leaned back into my pillow, I felt the book crush slightly. It took a large amount to self control for me to not reach back and hide it further.

"So what've you been doing, here all alone?" Tetra questioned, slightly teasingly.

"Aw, well, you know... just lying here... gazing wistfully out the window... wishing, oh! How I've been wishing for someone to talk to!"

Sheik snorted at my dramatics. "Hah, yeah, right. Dark told us that Link stays here for hours every day. Say, where is said _Prince Charming_?"I blushed, but still tried to look defiant by narrowing my eyes at him.

"Link went home half an hour ago, actually."

"You get lonely after half an hour? Wow, you're more pathetic than I thought," Tetra teased. I couldn't help myself. I yanked the pillow out from behind my back and threw it at her. Admittedly, it was a nice shot, hitting her right in her face. But removing the pillow meant that the object hidden behind the pillow was revealed. Oops. I made a desperate attempt to snatch it as Sheik snagged it from the side of my mattress. I hated having my left hand in cast and unmovable. My right hand simply didn't stretch that far.

"... What the hell?" he muttered. "Ew, a book full of math questions. Hey, that's trig! I think I know how to do that... Waht on earth is that supposed to mean?"

"Have you been doing this stuff Zelda?" Tetra asked me in disbelief.

"Uh... yeah?"

"Why on earth would you bother? What is this, anyway? Like, year twelve stuff?"

"My dad made me do it," I sighed. It was true.

"Man, the things that parents can make you do sometimes!"

"And he's making you do it in hospital?" Tetra asked, at the same time that Sheik exclaimed, "Scholarship testing?" My mouth went dry. I hadn't wanted to start the year by telling everyone that hopefully, I was leaving again. What a way to make friends.

"You're not staying?" Tetra asked quietly.

"Uh... no."

"... hate us that much, huh?"

"T's not that, Sheik." I smiled a little. "My dad's enrolled me for all these exams, because he reckons I'll get the best education somewhere else." I laughed, the sound tinged with bitterness. "He's a teacher, you know? Education is a little too important to him." In the next few moments I realised how much I despised awkward silences. I finally looked up to meet their eyes. "Hey, just don't... Don't tell anyone, yeah? I don't want them to think that I think I'm better than them or something."

"Not even Dark or Link?" Sheik asked. I nodded.

"Not, uh, yet. I'll tell 'em myself, if I get anywhere."

"You know, as much as I hate you for this, I reckon you'll get a scholarship, no problems," Tetra put in, a little grumpily. I gave her a smile.

"Thanks."

"Wait, does that mean you already know what we're doing in math at the moment?" Sheik piped in. I laughed.

"I didn't need to do all this extra stuff for that. The school I went to last year, Hylia High, pretty much covered all of this year's curriculum, last year."

"Lucky!" the other two exclaimed. I grimaced.

"Actually, it just makes my life excruciatingly boring."

"Yeah, but it still means that you don't have to study before exams," Tetra pointed out. I was surprised.

"You two study before exams?" I asked incredulously.

"Not a chance. But if you didn't already know this stuff, I'm sure you would've." Sheik grinned. I didn't.

"...What are you trying to say?"

"That you, Zelda Harkinian, are a huge nerd." I frowned and opened my mouth to object, but he beat me to it. "Now, don't tell me that you aren't. I saw those two last test results, and I don't know anyone who has gotten 100% on both plus extra credit, and still finished before everyone else in the classroom."

"Hey, think whatever you want, but I swear, that was one of the easiest tests I've taken in ages. And besides, those extra credit questions were simple. All you had to do was add-"

"See, you even remember the question! If that doesn't prove that you're a huge nerd, I don't know what does," he argued. I poked my tongue out at him childishly and snatched back the pillow that Tetra had in her hands. My next thought was to cross my arms on my chest, and then I remembered that one of them was a dead weight. I made do with a pout.

"Hey, you plan to come school any time soon? You know, to keep up your perfect record and all that," Tetra teased. I grimaced.

"Uh, yes, actually. I'll probably be at school the day after tomorrow. Doctor said I'd be released tomorrow morning."

"Great, because class is a drag without you. Senra is incredibly boring to talk to, considering that most conversations with her are one sided. As in, I do all the pointless talking."

"Aw, I'm glad to see you miss me." Sheik laughed.

"Of course we do. There's an end of term exam coming up soon and we couldn't do with anyone else to copy from." I stuck my tongue out at him again.

(xxx)

Walking into school, I came about another reason why having only one workable arm was hindering. My bag was constantly sliding down my right arm, annoying the hell out of me and probably making me look like a bigger idiot that I already was.

My father hadn't given me the option of staying home today, regardless of the fact that I seriously didn't want to come to school. I had grumbled about soreness, and the problem of getting by without an arm. I had complained of a headache and buried myself under the covers, after taking the doorknob off my door. That had only resulted in my father digging out a long forgotten crowbar, opening my door with it and then threatening to pound me with it if I didn't get my butt out the door within the next fifteen minutes. Such was how my father expressed love and sympathy.

The locker bay was plenty crowded by the time I attempted to enter. I tried to push through the throng of people, but gave up after something hit my arm and sent shooting pain rushing through it and up into my shoulder. And then the headache was no longer non-existent.

As perhaps the hundredth person bumped me, I swore under my breath and spun around fiercely. My anger died down a little as I saw who it was. "Oh, it's just you, Sheik."

"Ha, yeah, just me. Disappointed?" I glared at him and he laughed. "Anyway, next time, direct your evil look to Dark. He was the last one to bump you." I transferred my glare to Dark, who was standing just behind Sheik, earphones in his ear and ferociously mouthing words and head-banging. I snorted.

"You know, the way I'm going today, I'd bet you that my arm is re-broken or something." I sighed. "I just wish people would do whatever they had to do, without knocking me." Sheik laughed, whilst ushering me into the locker bay. Thankfully, it had cleared out.

My locker was neat, especially considering what it had been like last year. I think there had been something growing in it by the end of the year. Now, there was even space to put shove my bag in, I noted as I did so. I closed my locker then began to stand up, losing my balance for a moment. Dark, apparently behind me, offered me a hand as I tried to stand. I opened me mouth to say thank him, but in a flash, he scampered away, grinning.

I turned around to lock my locker and once again cursed under my breath. The grinning _maniac _had stolen my lock.

"_Give it back, you bastard!" _I yelled out to him. He had broken into insane dance like movements, brandishing my lock in the air above his head. Link walked in to the locker bay, chortling infuriatingly. I scowled. "You know... I could really use some help..." I hinted. He looked speculative for a moment.

"Ah, but this situation is just so entertaining."

"...please? You know I couldn't really chase after him without falling on my face anyway."

"And as entertaining as that situation would be..."

"Come on, please?" I was getting dangerously close to begging. Link sighed.

"Ah, what I wouldn't do for you, Princess." He took my good hand, kissed it, winked, then went off after Dark. I was left gaping, my face slightly flushed. It took me a moment to remember how to close my jaw.

Link practically pounced on Dark as he got close to him. They were sprawled on the grass, wrestling clumsy like two brothers do. Link made a few grabs at my lock but Dark always managed to wriggle away.

Dark managed to throw Link off him and almost skipped away. Link got back to his feet, fondly called Dark a bastard, then jumped on him again. Dark shouted something unintelligible and Link stood up grinning, holding my lock above his head. He ran up to me and offered me the lock on one knee. I rolled my eyes at his aggrandized dramatics.

"Oh, why thank you, my great, chivalrous, noble hero," I sighed caustically.

"No problem-o," he replied, standing up.

"How many times have you done that before?" I speculated.

"Get locks off him? About... twenty times. This year."

"And, assuming all the victims were girls, have you treated all of them... like..."

"Nah. Only the ones I felt pity for." I reached over, claimed my lock from him, then hit him over the head. Link rubbed his head, and glanced out of the locker bay as I locked my locker. Dark was still acting like an idiot outside, seemingly unperturbed by the failure of his plan to steal my lock. He was still dancing around, only now he was attempting to make Sheik act like and idiot. Sheik grinned, said something, then whacked Dark over the head and started walking back towards me. Dark continued to dance on.

It didn't take long before Dark sauntered back toward us. "Hey... Zel..." he started, leaning towards me and probably trying to achieve something to the likes of batting his eyelashes. Perhaps I needed to remind him of his gender. "You wouldn't happen to have any, would you? Because mum was in a hurry this morning and didn't give me any, and I have a caffeine quota to fill, or I might just _die. _There's a bottle of ice=coffee just sitting in the canteen, calling me. I can hear it, I really can. And I don't drink it, I might just _die._"

I shook my head slowly, glancing at Link as if to confirm if he always acted like this when he was caffeine deprived. He had gone to a whole new level of dramatics. Sheik walked past us a moment late, and Dark's gave was diverted.

"Sheik! My lovely, faithful, charming friend!" he cooed.

"... you make me sound like a dog," Sheik replied.

"You would just love to give Dark, your old pal, some money to buy a coffee, right? Right."

The ball rang, drowning out the rest of Dark's pathetic pleas. I glanced around again, Link having skipped off like a good little boy to his other friends, and Tetra... not having turned up. I wandered off towards first period Home Economics.

"Hey!" Leya greeted me outside the door. She always seemed chirpy, and my mood couldn't help but be lifted a little around her. "What happened to your arm?"

"I, uh, fell off a bike. On the weekend."

"A motorbike?" She giggled when I nodded hesitantly. "Ooh, whose?"

"Um, just a friend's..."

"Is it broken?"

"Huh. Yeah."

"Ow."

"Not at the moment. I'm drugged up enough not to feel much for now."

"I'd bet that'll make school enjoyable."

"Oh, yes."

As always, the kitchens smelt like warm pastry, the humming of a few of the ovens greeting our ears. I plucked an apron from a hook and managed to swing it around my neck. Most of the class had already arrived and Ms Nikolson stood at the front of the class, arranging her own ingredients.

"Alright, class, gather up around here and watch me, so I don't have to answer all your questions later." The class moved toward her with exaggerated slowness. "Today, we're making a simple soup, with a type of easy bread. All the ingredients are on the usually table, as are the recipes in the back.

"First, we need to collect and gather all your ingredients. We'll make the bread first, as that needs to go into the oven. Mix one cup of flour with 100 ml of water and..." And I wasn't listening anymore. The class had broken ou into whispers, yet she seemed ignorant of them all. I only came out of my stupor when she dismissed us to begin cooking.

This cooking lesson was perhaps the hardest one this term. It was partly because I had to figure out how to knead dough and chop vegetables with one hand, the latter of which I found was quite difficult after almost slicing my finger off for the third time. The other part of it was the fact the Fetim was constantly 'borrowing' things from Tetra's and my bench.

"About halfway through the lesson, I was left in a dilemma. I had no spoons, forks nor butter-knives left to use. Tetra's side of the bench, was half empty. I turned around to glare at Fetim, who was clumsily attempting to shape his dough into vaguely circular shapes. He winked at me.

"You will wash all this up, and put it back in it's rightful place," I informed him quietly, leaning on his bench.

"Tough luck. I will make sure to give you back your stuff when you fill up your sink."

"Your borrowing term ends after all of these items are clean. And when I saw clean, I mean spotless."

"Ah, and who's going to see this through?" he challenged.

"I only have one arm, but I am not hopeless," I hissed in reply.

"Ah, but-" he was cut off as a chunk of potato hit the side of his face and bounced onto the table. He turned.

"Leave her alone, you idiot," Link said calmly, rolling his eyes.

"And who are you to make me?" Fetim started, walking angrily towards Link. He lunged at Link, the class quickly gathering around as they both began to throw fists at each other. They were brought to a halt my a large clash at the other end of the room.

"What are you two doing?" Ms Nikolson demanded, her face deep red.

"Link started it," Fetim managed through the headlock Link had got him into.

"Dirty liar," I defended. "And I still expect all of my stuff to be cleaned and returned to me!"

"I do not care who started it," the teacher concluded, the vein in her forehead practically throbbing. "You both will be punished for it. I expect you both to re-wash all of the dishes that have been used today, and Fetim, all of Zelda's equipment will be returned clean, immediately. You will not go out without all that done." Fetim opened his mouth to complain, but the teacher cut him off. "Any complaints and you both will serve detentions with me for the rest of the year." She turned her glare over the class, then stalked out of the room again.

The class started to stir once again, returning to their benches. There was a loud shout and Chaka opened his oven to find black smoke pouring out.

"Aww, man!" Chaka wailed. "All my bread is ruined!"

"Too, bad, man. Guess there's no chance of you getting full marks now," Gaten said with a shrug.

"Unless..." Chaka started.

"Oh no! Don't even _think _about taking mine!"

"Please? Come on, what else are friends for?"

"Umm... telling you how sorry they are that you're not going to get full marks?" Gaten suggested fruitlessly. They continued their argument but were overtaken by a voice closer to me.

"Can't believe I have to clean all those extra pots and pans," Link mumbled. "Guess that means I'll have no time for recess, otherwise I'll be late for English..." I listened to a few more of his grumbles, then wandered over to the storeroom, where the teacher was still shuffling through ingredients.

"Um, Miss? Could you consider excusing Link from his punishment? See, Fetim lunged at him first, and what Link did was purely self defence," I rambled. Hey, it was pretty much true.

"Ah, they're not exactly friends, are they?" she muttered, spinning an orange in her hands then repacing it and picking up another one.

"... No, not really."

"Well, I guess Link can be excused. He has been a good student this term, so far."

"Great!"

"You're not about ask me to excuse the other boy too, are you?" She sniffed another orange.

"What? No, of course not. I mean, those pots and pans have to cleaned up by someone, right?" I heard her chuckles behind me as I walked happily back to the kitchens. Link was wiping down his bench, scowling.

"Problem solved," I announced cheerfully.

"Problem? I don't have a problem."

"Not any more, you don't, because I just fixed it for you."

"Fine, I cave. What did you do?"

"You, great hero of the ages," I said imperiously. "Are excused from your cleaning duties." There was a pause.

"Seriously?" I nodded. "Awesome, Zel, thanks!" He engulfed me in a hug, the let me go as I flinched with my arm getting squished between us.

"Well, I think it would be a good idea to keep being a good boy in this class." I pinched his cheek teasingly.

"I'll keep that in mind. I owe you one, Zel."

"Nope. This is me, trying to pay you back for all those nights you spent trying to sleep on lumpy hospital chairs."

I grabbed a tea towel and began to clean my own bench when Fetim, the brute, came to lean in my way.

"Hey, now, blaming that all on me wasn't very nice," he told me.

"You're not very nice, either."

"Come now, Zelda, that hurts. It's verbal abuse."

"Careful now, or I may just verbally slap you a few times." The bell rang and I happily left class, hearing Link mutter, "Have fun, ya' bastard," over his shoulder as he preceded me out the door.

I saw Tetra standing by my locker as I approached, wearing a hesitant smile. I glared at her. That was really starting to become a common expression of mine.

"I'm really sorry. I just couldn't get out of bed this morning, and-" Tetra started. I cut her off.

"Don't worry about it. Ust be sad you missed Home Eco today."

"Why, what happened?"

"Fetim is still being punished, having to clean the entire kitchen's pots and pans again," I told her, a little smug.

"Oh, good. Who did he fight this time?"

"Link, but since he's such a good boy," I raised my voice as the mentioned boy passed me, "he got off the hook."

"Ah, congrats to our favourite nerd," Sheik interrupted fondly.

"Hey, if I died, is that what you would request be put on my gravestone?" I asked brashly.

"Sure would. All hail, the Princess of nerds, Zelda!" he called, a little too loud for my acceptance. Much to my grief, Link replied.

"All hail the Princess!"

"... alright, are you done now?" Sheik nodded as Dark came meandering up to us. The black haired boy reached into the pockets of his jacket. When his hands emerged, one was holding a cookie, the other, a pen. He began drawing on the back of one hand, regularly reaching into his pocket for another cookie. When he finally noticed our stares, and glanced between us questioningly.

"What?"

"Food has just been... appearing out of your pocket. Do you know how disconcerting that is?" Sheik questioned.

"Neh." He continued drawing, then paused and looked at up again. "Want a cookie?" Tetra eyed said offered cookie with distaste.

"Uh, I'm almost afraid to ask... empty your pockets first." Dark sighed, but complied, sitting on the ground and emptying his pockets. He spread the objects out before him.

"Alright, so I have: a packet of mini cookies, three blue pens – actually, I think only two of them work-, a black pen, a pocket pad thingo, an empty ice-coffee bottle, a plastic bottle lid, some glad wrap, two dead cockroaches, a handful of dirt- in fact, that may have been a sandwhich some time last month- some tanbark, a couple of mouldy leaves, part of an eggshell- I wonder where the other part went?" His hand searched through his pockets again, and when he didn't find anything else, he finished his list. "And a lamington. Which is fresh, in case you were wondering," he added at Sheik's dubious look. I coughed, spluttered for a moment, then started laughing. Tetra's nose was scrunched up and Sheik snorted. "So? Want a cookie?"

"... No, I think we're fine, Dark. Thanks," Sheik declined for the three of us. Dark shrugged, and began putting everything back into his pocket, sans the dirt, bugs, leaves and eggshells. Then he stood and sweeped whatever was left on the ground away with his foot, stuck his hands into his pockets and started strolling away, whistling.

We stared after him a moment before following from a safe distance.

(xxx)

I struggled with the door knob for a few moments, tugging at the door. I had put my key into the lock and twisted it, but that hadn't seemed to make a difference. I assumed it was locked securely form the inside, meaning I couldn't get in. It was unusual, but my father had forgotten to unlock it before.

I sighed as I climbed around the side of the house, throwing my bag over the back gate before climbing over myself. Not exactly the most elegant way to enter my own house, but hell, he never locked the back door.

I slid the back door open roughly, annoyed at it taken much too long to simply enter my own house. My mouth was open, ready to complain, when I noticed my father by his laptop. He was on his hands and knees, coughing violently.

"Dad!" I knelt at his side and put my arms around his shoulders. Slowly, as his coughing abated, I helped him back to his feet. He stumbled a few steps with my help, then practically collapsed into a nearby chair. "Hey, what happened?"

"It's, uh nothing." He coughed twice more. "You wouldn't mind going upstairs and getting the little white bottle next to my bed, would you?" I headed upstairs and fetched him the bottle, eyeing him critically as he tipped out two little white pills and swallowed them. Finally, his eyes met mine. "What?"

"How long have you been taking those?" I asked.

"What do you mean, 'how long?' How do you know this isn't the first time I've taken them?"

"They're a prescription from the doctor. That means there is something serious enough to see a doctor about. Are you going to tell me what it's about?"

"Trust me, Zellie, it's nothing. Seriously. Besides," he changed the subject. I almost groaned out loud. "There is only three weeks until your next exam. I've already marked some more pages for you upstairs." I couldn't help it. I groaned.

"Back to the books I go."

* * *

**A/N EDIT: edited and re-uploaded on 14/09/2010**

**Author's Notes:**

I know, I know. The chapter is almost one week late.

Thing is, I kind of had a mental blank, and just never got around to it. Then came my new laptop, then I remembered that I'm going on holiday tomorrow. So, yeah.

Well, as I just mentioned, I now have my own laptop. Hopefully, that means I'll start getting chapters up faster, or at least on time. I'm currently working on two new stories as well, so that is another distraction.

Anyway, I really hope you liked the chapter. I had to explain a few things, so sorry if that made it a little boring.

Quokka, this chapter was a tribute to you and your huge pockets full of stuff. It was also another mention of some good times I've had with Fossils and annoniemouse.

Hope you liked the chapter once again, and if you did, please leave a review. Even if you didn't, please leave a review.

Next chapter should be up in about a week. I look forward to it, and I hope you do to. Bye for now, I'm off on holiday!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The silence was, in its own strange way, deafening. The hall was large, made to seem even larger by the five hundred people that filled it.

I looked around me, and let out a small sigh of relief. There were only four other people giving the same exam as me. Only four other people I had to best.

That thought in mind, I picked up my pencil once again and started reading through the fourth and last paper of this exam.

(xxx)

"How was it, Zellie?" My father had been waiting for outside the hall at the end of the exam. I smiled widely, genuinely.

"Good. Easier than I thought it would be."

"Excellent. How many other people were there?"

"In my age group, or all together?"

"In your age group?"

"Four."

"Four?" He was grinning so broadly it looked like he might break into dance, or worse, start to sing. "That's not bad."

We walked in silence for a few minutes, but as we closed the car doors, his smile faded.

"But that doesn't mean that they're your only opponents," he pointed out suddenly. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "There was three different times you could've given this exam. The first, you would've been considered for this school, and two others. The second, this school and one other. You only gave this school, so you're only in for a chance with this school, but other people that gave the first and second exam might also be considered for this school."

"... Well damn! You couldn't have thought to tell me this before?" I felt a little disheartened.

"Well, I didn't want you to get distracted..."

"When were the other exams?"

"The first the same weekend as your earlier one, so around the end of February, and the second... about two months ago, I think."

"Aww, man... The results come in about four weeks, so they must've already decided the scholarship getters. That means I did this exam for nothing!"

"Hmm, I didn't think of that..." he sounded thoughtful, and perhaps just a little annoyed.

"Whatever. That waste of time was your fault," I said. "Now tell me about next week's exam. Do I have a chance?"

"Yes, next week's one, you definitely do," he said firmly.

"Because...?"

"Because next week's exam is for all the schools in that category, so they do it all on the same day."

"Hylia High School is part of that category?"

"It certainly is. I've also entered you into a few others, but you won't be considered for them unless Hylia rejects you. Which it won't, I'm sure."

"Thanks, Dad," I snorted. His optimism was comforting, and, though I wouldn't tell him, desperately needed.

(xxx)

I steered away from the Sports Academy locker bay. As I passed, my arm, still in its cast, seemed to tingle forebodingly. It could've just been in my mind, but why take the chance? I caught a glimpse of Ganondorf and his cronies, all giving me malicious grins. I swallowed convulsively, and kept walking, heading towards my own locker bay. Term two at school had started ten days ago, and I almost welcomed it. It was a nice change from the two weeks of holidays I spent studying.

After entering the school, I figured a longer route wouldn't do me any harm, considering I was more than twenty minutes early. I took a detour around the gym, across the oval, then headed up behind the classrooms and locker bay which was my goal. I was barely five paces from the back of the building when a small figure stepped in front of me. I nearly rolled my eyes.

"Yes? Do you... want something?"

"To talk to you, obviously." Vaati, the ignorant bastard, was still walking around like the king of the damned place, while I tried not to trip over my feet for the lack of balance that came with having a non-functional arm. I shifted on my feet and waited.

"... So? Talk." It was as much of a prompt as he'd needed.

"Link."

"What about him?" My voice sounded a little defensive, even to me. If he tried to hurt my friend...

"I asked you to stay away from him." His eyes glinted evilly. "You haven't."

"You _asked _me? You punk-ass coward, you had me pinned to a wall by a guy twice my size! Psh, you _asked_ me."

"True," he conceded. "But still, I expected you to get the gist of what I was saying."

"I don't take hints from _twerps_."

"Duly noted. So this time, I'm _telling_ you. Stay away from him."

"What are you afraid of, huh?" I challenged. "That once he figures out what true friendship feels like, he'll forget about you? I damn well hope he does."

"I'm afraid that he might just forget about who he is."

"Who he is, or who you've tried to make him?"

"There was an order in the world, before," he hissed, patient facade finally crumbling. "We were at the top. What we did to those at the bottom... didn't matter. He's never even spoke to that brunette in our class before... what's-her-name."

"Tetra."

"Now," he continued, "she's one of the first ones he talks to in the morning! When he's with us, he doesn't pay attention to anything. If we complement a girl, he smiles and keeps walking. If we say anything _against_ a girl, he smiles _at her _and shakes his head at _us_. The entire bloody world has been tipped upside down!"

I only took a moment for his words to sink in, for me to burst into laughter. "Oh, I see what's going on here! It was always him, wasn't it? He was always the one to talk to a pretty girl, to introduce them to you, to hint you into chasing after her. Man, I think you just shrunk a couple more inches." Seeing as, even now, I had to truly look down at him, that was saying something.

I started walking off, but tripped over the foot he stuck out after two steps. I turned to him again after finding my bit of balance. He was red-faced and looked like he was either about to pull a shovel out of somewhere and hit me over the head with it, or burst into tears. I prayed that the latter be more likely.

"He was... our bridge to dominance, shall we say," Vaati decided in way of desperate explanation.

"Those are some big plans for such a small, small boy." I pet his hair before starting to walk off again. This time, he grabbed a handful of the back of my uniform. I couldn't hold back any longer. I spun around, slapped him hard across the cheek, and continued to the lockers. Just as I was about to go in, I was yanked to the side.

"Gah!" I squeaked.

"What the _hell _was all that about?"

"... Sheik?"

"What, can't recognise my face after a night at home?"

"No, it's just-" My voice quavered just a tiny bit at Vaati's confrontation.

"What did he want?" Sheik pressed. I did my best to play dumb.

"What did _who_ want?" I asked innocently.

"Stop acting dumb, Zel. What did Vaati want?"

"He was, uh, warning me. And eavesdropping is rude!"

"Yeah, well. Wait, warning you to what?"

"Don't worry about it Sheik, it's nothing," I dismissed. He snorted, looking over my shoulder.

"Which is precisely why he just walked into the locker bay with a red, hand-shaped mark on his cheek, right?"

"He was the reason I was in hospital, alright?" I finally caved. My damn friend and his slightly disconcerting stare.

"... I thought it was the Sports Academy?"

"Hell, you really think they're smart enough to think of cornering me after school, alone, by using their collective ten brain cells? Che."

"It was Vaati and Kafei." I almost laughed as he said that with such finality. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"Saying it makes me sound... whiny. They're Link's friends. I don't want him to think that I'm... I don't know, like, trying to get rid of the others, or something." Sheik rolled his eyes at me.

"You, my friend, are an idiot." Still, he enveloped me in a hug. "He would still listen to you, you know? He's not as brash as he seems. Not as stupid, either," he added as an afterthought.

"Still don't tell him, 'kay?" I asked slowly.

"I won't, I won't. Not until you decide to. But you never actually told me what the midget wanted."

"To stay away from Link."

"Heh. Alright. You may want to be careful Zel. Vaati won't stop. Not this early."

"You don't even know the guy, Sheik."

"He sent rumours around the school when I was twelve. They didn't disappear for over six months, and he made my life hell. And this was in primary school, for goodness sake!"

"He, uh, wouldn't try anything on Link, right?" I was more frightened for him than myself, honestly.

"Nah. He's got us to back him up, even though we won't be able to do a lot of damage against those sports freaks."

"... Thanks, Sheik," I breathed.

"No problem-a." He slung an arm around my right shoulder, letting me walk into to the lockers this time. "You never really told me the whole story about those exams of yours."

"You really want to know?" I laughed.

"Sure. How many've you done so far?"

"Two." I wasn't planning on divulging any more information than that. He didn't need to know how pointless one had been, and that one had presented an offer, which I had rejected.

"Any more?"

"Last one this weekend, for Hylia High." Sheik's expression had grown steadily downcast. The bell rang, and I hugged him quickly. "Don't worry," I reassured, speaking quietly in his ear. "I won't forget you." Tetra ran down the hill and into the locker bay, giving Sheik a wave and dragging me behind her as she did so.

I gave Sheik a smile as he promptly trudged off to class.

(xxx)

It was nothing new for class to last... much too long.

Ms Rova was the only teacher I knew who would give a class fifty minutes to write down twenty words and their translations.

I will hold for my entire life that it does not take an entire period to solve ten algebraic equations, regardless if there is an 'x' on both sides of the equals sign.

Never for the life of me will I figure out why a teacher would give the class silent reading time, when more than half the class were surely illiterate.

And through all this, I had to sit in a chair and endure the sight of Link chattering enthusiastically with Vaati and Kafei. At one point in time, the little purple haired boy shot me a smile that was so sickly sweet I swear I nearly threw up onto the table. I did, however, note with slight satisfaction that his cheek was still a little red.

(xxx)

They reminded me of a hive of bees, all swarming to get to the same flower. It seemed like there was near a hundred people all rushing to get into messy cues in order to get their lunch. I thanked Nayru we had been let out of class early, backing away from the hoard as Tetra pushed her way through the crowd.

"Why are you always the last ones to get back from class?" she questioned Sheik and Dark as we found them in the locker bay.

"Because Dark is deaf and never hears the bell," Sheik started.

"And Sheik likes to talk to the teachers after each class," Dark finished stubbornly. I chuckled. Sounded like them.

"You know, the lady in the canteen gave me strangest look when I asked her for three rolls," Tetra informed them, handing them each a roll before opening her own.

"It's for your own good that you do, you know," Dark told her matter-of-factly, taking a large bite from his lunch. He swallowed, then continued. "If we got in line after we got back from class, there wouldn't be anything left for us by the time it actually got to us. And then you would be stuck with us asking you for food all lunch time."

"Point taken," she conceded. "But where were you this time, exactly?"

"Talking to the science teacher," Sheik said.

"... About?" I questioned.

"He had this weird new haircut," Dark snickered. "I probably shouldn't have brought it up the way I did, though. He kind of looked like he might cry." I laughed.

"You're quite the conversationalist, I see."

"Maybe next time, you should join in our conversation," he suggested. "Come take a look at my fantabulous skill."

"Oh we would, Dark," Tetra started sweetly. "But I'm too busy buying lunches." She bopped him over the head with the still wrapped end of her roll.

"Ow. Oh, hey, I thought you might want to know, I threw out a couple more things that I found in my pockets last period."

"Oh really? What were they?"

"Hey, you sound so doubtful Zel! Actually, they were a couple of math tests." I raised my eyebrow, and he continued. "From the seventh grade."

"Actually, he was kind of clever back then," Sheik put in. Tetra and I laughed. Dark frowned.

"What d'you mean, _back then_?"

(xxx)

I was pleased to find, while walking home, that I did have a little movement back in my arm. I could possibly have looked very strange, almost glaring down at my plastered arm in concentration, while my fingers moved a little and my bag was practically falling off my other shoulder. Whilst I was proud of the improvement, considering the doctor figured it wouldn't be able to move for another week at least, I decided to stop testing the limits of the movement relatively soon after beginning. The pain that shot up my arm wasn't worth the twitch of my fingers.

"Zel!"

"Yeah?" I replied, not bothering to look back. I had recognised Midna's shout.

"Stooooop!" She caught up to me, panting heavily. I complied with a sigh.

"Any particular reason that you're depriving yourself of air to talk to me?"

"Yes, actually. Reckon it'd be alright if I got a friend over today? I kind of forgot to tell dad, but since you'll get home before me, could you tell him? And ask him to pick some papers off the couch, please," she requested.

"Sure, sure."

"Thank you!" She hugged me around the waist quickly, I patted her head a couple of times, before she ran back down the hill.

At home, my father opened the door, beaming. I was instantly wary.

"What are you smiling about?" I asked suspiciously. The last time he was this happy at four o'clock on a weekday afternoon, sober, he had gotten a date with my school principal. I was praying that it was something more considerate to my personal sanity this time.

"Your last exam is in a couple of days."

I smiled too. "I guess that _is_ something to be happy about." I paused. "Oh, and Midna's bringing a friend over."

"Hmm... I guess I should clean the couch then huh?"

"I think she'd appreciate that." I watched him as he unscrewed the lid of the little white bottle of pills and swallowed one, following it with a glass of water.

"Have you been to the doctor again?" He nodded. "And? What did he say?'

"I've already told you, Zel," he sighed. "It's nothing serious. I just get a little short of breath sometimes."

"Not to mention the crippling chest pains."

"Ah, Zel, what am I going to do with you and your perceptive observations?"

"You could try telling me the truth," I suggested. He snorted.

"Come on, don't you... have some studying to do?"

"Nope. You don't believe in last minute cramming, remember?" I reminded him happily. "If you need me, I'll be upstairs in my room."

I had to admit it, after twenty minutes of lying on my bed. This book, that my English teacher had suggested with much enthusiasm, was boring as hell. My eyes had already drooped shut twice, and it wasn't even half past four yet.

Midna opened the door, just as my eyes were beginning to droop shut for the third time.

"Hey, Zel, this is Aryll," she said, indicating to the short girl standing just behind her. Her messy blonde hair hung past her shoulders, her blue eyes twinkling in a way that seemed almost familiar.

"Hey." The girl waved at my greeted, then followed Midna into her room just down the corridor. I kicked the door shut and attempted to pay attention to the book, where apparently I had read past the part where three of the main characters had just been killed. Hmm, perhaps flicking back a few pages would be necessary...

(xxx)

There was a loud knocking at the door, but I was just too comfortable at the moment. I had ended up shifting to the couch downstairs once the two younger girls had started playing loud music that did not at all appeal to me.

"Open the door, Zel!" Midna called from upstairs. Dad had gone out to a meeting.

"You open it!" I yelled back. The knocking paused for a moment, and I thought the person had abandoned his quest to get someone to open the door. My phone rang. "Mmm?" I replied sleepily.

"Open the door, Zel!" My eyebrows scrunched in confusion, and I wandered to the door and opened it.

"... Hi Link," I acknowledged slowly. "What are y-"

"Hey Link!" Aryll called, running down the corridor. She stopped half way down, leaning against the wall to tug her second shoe on.

"Hey Aryll. Ready to go?"

"Yep."

"Good, hurry up. I brought the jacket for you, 'cause it looks like it's going to rain."

"Aw man, I just washed my hair yesterday!"

"Hey, don't worry about it! What else are helmets for?"

"Helmet hair," Aryll groaned, going out the door and stopping by Link's motorcycle, parked just under the covers. I looked between the two of them multiple times, slightly confused.

"You're Aryll's..."

"Awesome big brother," Link finished for me with a grin.

"Ah, I knew she reminded me of someone!"

"We don't really look all that much alike," he said.

"Yes, you do. You have exactly the same eyes. And smiles." At the same time, they frowned, making me laugh. "And the same frowns." Link snorted and ruffled his sister's hair. She zipped up her jacket and put a back helmet on her head. Link put his own helmet on and wheeled the bike around. He got on it smoothly, Aryll jumping on behind him.

"Bye Midna," Aryll waved.

"Bye Zelda!" Link called over the noise of the bike, imitating his sister's voice. He blew a kiss in my direction before driving down the driveway. I snorted as I saw Aryll shove his back hard, and heard his loud laugh in reply. They drove down the street, just as the heavens opened and the sound of rain drowned out everything else.

* * *

**A/N EDIT: chapter re-uploaded 21/09/2010**

**Authors Notes:**

Once again, I'm sorry for the late update. I have no real excuse this time, so let me just say, it took me a while to build the bridge.

So, Zelda's exams are nearly over. Vaati is a grudge holder, who can be a little scary sometimes, and you were introduced to Aryll. I think that's about all that really happened in this chapter. Hmm... It just came to me, but If you simply read my authors notes every time, it would save you from reading the entire chapter... that's a little sad, but don't let it discourage you from reading the actual stroies, please.

As always, I hope you liked the chapter. Please review, I really do appreciate them. Next chapter in about a week.

That's all for now. Bye!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I would've sworn my heart was about to jump out of my throat, it was fluttering so badly. I started wringing my hands as we drove into the parking lot and my eyes settled on the familiar buildings. My dad parked, slightly jerkily, and put a hand on my knee.

"Ready?" I think he was trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Nope." I drew in a long breath, my gaze out the window. "Let's go." He nodded as my eyes came back to rest on him and he reached into his jacket pocket, drawing out a box the size of my hand.

"What's this?" He smiled.

"Open it, come on." I wasn't going to wait and be told again. Inside was a relatively simple silver watch, with a little stone studded into the top of it. I touched it lightly, feeling a little better than what I had before.

"It's... pretty. Thanks dad." He laughed.

"I thought you'd like it. It was your mothers. I had new batteries put in it, and polished it up a little."

"Thanks," I repeated. "Is there a reason for this, or just..."

"Well I figured you deserve it now, after studying so hard and everything. I'm so proud of you." I was getting a little nervous again now, as the crowd was getting bigger and bigger outside the reception of the school.

"Let's go, dad," I said, and he nodded and opened his door.

I didn't object when he took my hand in his as we walked to the back of the milling crowd. My left hand limply held onto a bag of stationery, and his hand brought me a small comfort.

"Welcome to Hylia High!" a booming voice called. I sighed as I recognised the short, stumpy careers department woman standing in front of the crowd. "There will be multiple exams going on today, so I will call in groups separately. When you enter, please do so alone. Parents are not permitted in just yet, but are welcome to wait here until all the students have started their exams.

"I wish all the students the best of luck! Now, all the people here who are currently in grade four, could you please say goodbye to your parents and follow me inside?"

Slowly, the crowd began to disperse. I watched as parents emotionally wished their children good luck, and some pretty miserable looking children wandered inside after completely ignoring their parents shouts. I smirked. I was pretty sure that I looked like that, sometimes.

"Year tens! Would you please come inside now!" the stocky teacher called. I turned to my father, who had gone a little paler than usual, while looking at the teacher.

"Does it feel funny, looking at people you used to work with?"

"... a little, Zel. Not many of the students really liked her much, but she was a fantastic person to talk to at lunch. I swear, she knows what's going on in every corner of the globe, all the time. I've never even heard of half the places she used to talk about!" he reminisced. I smiled a little, before hugging him and moving to the door.

"Wish me luck!" I saw him smile at me and give me two thumbs up before two people blocked him from my view.

The group of year tens wasn't huge; something like twenty people. It was a comforting thought, until I remembered that it was likely that at most, only one person was to be taken from this group. That, and I knew this exam wasn't going to be easy.

As I walked down the main corridor of the second level of the school building, three teachers smiled at me. I gave them all small smiles in return, and I felt my face heating up with slight embarrassment. I don't really know why I was embarrassed. At the end of the corridor, we turn left and down a flight of stairs. At the base of the stairs was the library, which we turned away from, then headed towards the classrooms that started from behind the stairs.

"Just wait here for a moment, while they finish setting the room up," the teacher instructed, leaving the group of us standing in the corridor as she headed inside.

"...Zelda?" a voice asked. I spun around and the girl standing just behind me met my eyes and grinned. I recognised the raven haired girl after a moment.

"Carina!" We hadn't been all that close last year, when she shared a few of my classes, but we knew each other well enough. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I presume. Giving the exam."

"Of course. I didn't know you had left the school."

"Yeah, it wasn't something I told a lot of people. I got a scholarship to St. Nayru's college last year."

"Nice one!"

"I guess," she replied gloomily. "Truly, I don't like the place much, so I'm trying to get back in here." I nodded.

"In the classroom, you will find a desk with your name on it. Sit there, and don't fiddle with the paper in front of you," the teacher instructed, sticking her head out the door and beckoning us in. The classroom was one I had visited often last year, most often for Geography. I had had some good daydreams in this room.

"We'll be starting in about three minutes," another teacher said loudly, pacing down the rows and placing a sheet of paper face down in front of each person. "The first test is a writing piece, the topic for which I am placing in front of you. The other booklet, already in front of you, will be what you write on. You will have twenty five minutes to write as much and as well as you can. We'll tell you when to start. For not, just sit tight."

The was a rustle of paper as people adjusted themselves and their equipment on their desk. Zippers sounded as people took out pens and pencils, and many people snuck a look at their phones and put them on silent. Suddenly, silence stretched out in the room.

"... Awkward..." I said quietly, not being able to help myself. A few people around me guffawed, before the teacher told everyone to shush.

"You may start... now." The last of the chuckles died abruptly as everyone flipped over their two papers, leaving the room silent once again. My first thought about the picture before me was that was incredibly good photography. Then I picked up a pen and began to write.

(xxx)

As I walked around the oval, a few memories flashed into my head. Some were of my friends and I sitting on the grass at lunch, though most were of the times I had torturously been told to run around it during Sports classes. A loud horn sounded, and all the occupants of the oval, myself included, started wandering back towards the buildings. I couldn't help sighing.

For the last six months of my life, my ultimate goal had been to get back into Hylia High. I had spent so many long hours with my head down, studying things I was almost certain would never come in handy after my schooling life. But now... I had little doubts running through my head. And all those doubts had names. Tetra, Sheik, Dark... Link. I was starting to doubt that I wanted to leave East Hyrule.

Half my mind was insisting that I should just leave now. Abandon this exam, face my father's disappointment, go home, and enjoy my life at East Hyrule High. But... I didn't think I could do that either.

My head was still occupied in internal debate when I re-took my seat in the examination room and started to un-jumble the stupid puzzles in front of me.

(xxx)

When the teacher called pencils down, there was a collective sigh from every student in the room. The last paper was finally over. I played with the watch on my wrist idly as I contemplated how I was going to waste the rest of my afternoons this year. The possibilities made me smile.

"Well done to everybody. I'm sure you have all done superbly. I'll take you back to your parents now, so you can all go home and relax," a new teacher informed us. Seats were immediately abandoned, and half the people were out of the room before he had even finished talking.

I smiled at Carina as she found her own parents in the foyer of the school, then started to search for my own father. I heard him before I saw him.

He stood in a corner of the room, amongst a large group of teacher, gesturing wildly and grinning. He looked positively blissful to be amidst his old colleagues once again. He didn't even notice me until I had walked into the inner circle of the group and waved.

"Ah, I'm sure you all know my daughter Zelda," he introduced. I nodded absently to the group, though I did recognise most of the faces. "Well, we should be going. My younger daughter is at home and I'm sure Zelda just can't wait to get out of this place." He eased himself out of the circle after me, still talking back to them as we headed out the door.

"... Well, you looked like you were enjoying yourself," I commented as we climbed into the car.

"I was," he assured me happily. "It was nice to see them again. All except for that... Julie lady. Stupid cow came from some country town and took over head of Mathematics." Of course, my dad would despise the person who took his old job.

"You really shouldn't talk about her like that. She could be nice." After all, he had never really been the most loved math teacher in the school.

"Yeah well, it's not like I'll ever see her again anyway."

(xxx)

If the vacuum in my hands hadn't been so loud, my ears probably would've exploded. As it was, it was most likely they would be destroyed anyway, but for the meantime, I'd enjoy the music that was blaring over the radio. Besides, it was the only way that the job would get done.

I lifted up the rug and continued vacuuming the carpet underneath. Dad had insisted that it was positively filthy, and, somehow, he had convinced me to be the one to clean it. I danced around stupidly in my scruffy jeans and my favourite old white t-shirt. Eventually, I started singing too, running the nozzle of the vacuum over the same spot, trying to get all the visible dirt out.

The breeze was blowing in from the front door, drying the corridor which my father had also coerced me into mopping. Vacuuming and mopping, two chores that I absolutely detested doing.

I spun around on the spot in time with the music, now using the hose of the vacuum as a guitar. I was proud of my awesome finale to the song, before tripping over the wire of the cleaner and being sent sprawling onto the ground, the nozzle just inches from my nose. It took me a few moments before I could push myself back up, for having only one arm in use disables a person slightly.

The horrible sucking noise deafened me for a few moments before I was on my feet again, making my head throb a little. I swore at the vacuum cleaner as I straightened my shirt angrily. Angrily, I yanked the plug out of the wall and looked down triumphantly at the now silent vacuum cleaner.

"Ha! How d'you liked that?" I gloated. I nudged it with my foot victoriously, before something set in. "... what are you _doing_ Zel? You're talking to an _appliance_."

"If it starts talking back, you're in trouble." I spun around, tangling my feet in the vacuum cleaner cord and subsequently falling to the ground. Again. I looked up to the faces of my four friends, all of whom were staring down at me, laughing.

"What are you doing here?" I asked them, as Link offered me a hand. I took it gratefully and he pulled me to my feet.

"Your dad invited us over for lunch," Dark explained.

"How did you get in the house?" I asked the more pressing question.

"Door was open," the four of them chorused with a shrug. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey kids!" Dad was standing in the door that led outside, beaming. "Like my surprise, Zel?"

"Yeah, dad. Thanks."

"Come on, all of you, outside. The barbecue's roaring to go. Aryll found Midna?"

"Sure did, sir," Link replied.

"Stop with all the 'sir' stuff if you want to eat, boy, got it?"

"Got it."

Outside, there was four chairs already set up in a rough half circle, and I realised, perhaps a little belatedly, that we'd need some more. I dragged four more out of the garage and dusted them as well as I could, considering they hadn't been used for something like six or seven years.

As I sat down to the wafting aroma of cooking meat, I was met with the stares of all four of my friends.

"... what?"

"Just wondering what the occasion is," Sheik said, though the glint in his eye told me that he already had some idea.

"I, uh, don't particularly... know." I turned to my father and shouted, "Hey dad! What's the occasion?"

"Does one need an occasion to spend a beautiful outside with one's friends?" he replied happily. I rolled my eyes.

"Just keep in mind that they're _my_ friends, and not yours, alright?"

Dark's face was turned up to the sky, his nose twitching as he sniffed intently. "I... Smell... Steak!" He made it sound like a battle cry as he jumped off the chair and headed haphazardly over to the barbeque to start pestering my father no doubt.

"Zel!" My father pointed to the door. "Run inside and grab us some bread and stuff will you?" I nodded in response and headed inside.

"I'll, uh, go help her," I heard Sheik mutter from behind me.

By the time I was inside, he was behind me, arms ready while I piled stuff from my pantry into them. "Seriously, what's the occasion?"

"You'll keep your mouth shut, right?" Without waiting for an answer, I replied to his earlier question. "I did my last exam this morning."

"Nice one Zel! I'd hug you, but I have all this stuff in my hands. But hey, now I figure you'll all the more time to waste with us, right?" Truthfully, it made me a little sad to his smile so broad, but somehow, I managed to alter my expression from the grimace it was no doubted set in.

"Right."

"Hey, don't wear that expression. No regrets when you move, alright?"

"... Right," I repeated, though I did feel marginally better. "Thanks Sheik."

"No problem. I think we'd better get back out there before your dad hits Dark over the head with a gas bottle."

"Agreed." We hurried back outside, only to find my father doing his best to usher Dark back onto a seat, while telling stories animatedly to Link and Tetra, who had also gathered around him. As Sheik dumped all the bread onto the table beside the barbeque, Link and Tetra burst out laughing, while Dark stared at me doubtfully, a small smile playing around his lips.

"What have you done this time Dad?" I groaned.

"He told us exactly what you used to get up to last year," Link said smugly. I hung my head.

"Crud."

"How many detentions did he get you out of?" Tetra asked eagerly.

"... Eleven. That's not counting the six I actually ended up attending."

"The 'sit here and pretend you're in trouble' sort, or the 'scrape gum out from under the desks, file papers and chew the gum while you're doing it' sort?"

"The latter. Though they never actually made me _eat_ the gum." I scrunched up my nose at the thought.

"Shit, Zel, how do you end up with so many?"

"My Math teacher – one of _his_ employees," I gestured with my head to my father, who only raised his eyebrows and shrugged, "didn't like me much. In fact, neither did my Science teacher, History teacher, or language teacher."

"Then how, exactly, are you so good at _everything_?" Link asked, slightly grumpily.

"I'm not," I felt the need to point out, even though I'm certain they didn't even hear it. "And not all my teachers hated me. My Art teacher sort of liked me... wait, what am I saying, it was strange how much she liked me! ... Ugh, she was hairy and disgusting... Oh, and my English teacher quite liked me! Actually, she's probably half the reason I passed at all, after I found out she was a bit of a History and Science geek too."

"But remember, your Math teacher gave you a C, so that... pretty much counters everything," Midna put in. There was snickers all around, and only I was left standing there looking like an idiot.

"You know Zel, you should try acting like you did last year with the teacher at East Hyrule," he suggested. "They might even think you're normal."

"I am acting like I did last year!" I complained.

"And don't you kids try to change that! At least let her be good for one year," Dad warned. The others laughed and started calling out steak orders as he put more onto the hot grilling plate.

(xxx)

I was staring at my little sister as she ripped a hot dog in half and shoved it and half of her hand into her mouth. I think she may have even swallowed her hand had she not thought about it for a moment, taken her hand out and then started to chew.

"... How did you manage that?" I asked her. I had been around this girl all her life, and still she never ceased to both amaze and scare me at the same time.

I think she was trying to ask me 'what?' but the sound didn't completely make it out of the hot dog in one piece.

"I didn't think it was even possible to fit that much in your mouth," I noted.

"How much?" Tetra asked.

"Half a hot dog, plus half a hand."

"Only half a hot dog?" Dark scoffed. "I _know _I can do better than that!" He turned to stare down Midna, who retaliated with just as much full-mouthed enthusiasm.

The chairs spread around the yard were exchanged in an instant for two little tables, each with a plate of muffins atop it.

"Did it have to be muffins?" Midna whined. She had never held much of a liking for sweets, especially cakes and the like.

"I love muffins!" Dark exclaimed happily. "Especially chocolate ones..." He got a particularly predatory look on his face, eyeing down the little cakes in front of him. Link put his hand up as if he was about to start a race.

"Alright, rules are as such. You have one bite to get as much of the muffin in your mouth as possible. The other person will try to beat it and so forth until someone gives up or can't swallow what they have in their mouth. Ready?" Midna nodded in response, and Dark made a show of cracking his neck with a large smile. "Dark, go!" Dark picked up a muffin and took a small bite of it, about the half the size of one he would usually take. Midna's was barely a fraction bigger.

It went back and forth numerous times, until finally Midna picked up a muffin and bit off everything that was on top of the paper, which was nearly half the cake. We were all suitably impressed, except Dad, whose only wry comment was, "Such ladies I've raised."

When she had swallowed and it was again Dark's turn, he made tedious work of peeling off the paper wrapping and bringing it to his mouth. Then, in a moment, half of it had already disappeared into his mouth. We stared at him for a moment, and he simply stared back, looking just a little strange with half of a large muffin poking out of his mouth. And then, with a finger, he poked the rest of the muffin into his mouth. The comical sight caused us all to start laughing without bothering to pause to congratulate him on his sure win. Dark climbed on top of his table and took a grand bow, humbly shaking Midna's hand. I don't think there was anybody else capable of eating an entire muffing in one gulp like Dark had just done.

(xxx)

Seven of us walked down the corridor, all talking at once. Link, who was walking on to my right, looked back over our shoulders.

"Where's your dad?" he asked me. I shrugged.

"Probably cleaning the barbeque. He takes way too much care of that thing by my opinion." Link laughed.

"So when are you getting that cast off? It must've been at _least_ six weeks that you've had it on by now."

"It has. I'm getting it off in a couple days," I answered excitedly. Finally, I'd have the entire use of my limbs again. Link reached down and took my right hand.

"Well then, I guess for now, I'll just have to hold this hand," he said lightly. I was about to snatch my hand back, as a reflex, but realised I didn't want to. His hand was bigger than mine, and sent strange warmth through me. I smiled as we stopped at the door. 'Lunch' had gone overtime, as it was now past 5. I spotted two motorbikes down near the curb, as well as a clean silver car. I whistled appreciatively.

"Who's car?" I asked.

"Mine," Sheik replied. "Like it?"

"It's nice. When did you get it?"

"During the summer holidays. It was a bit of a dump, but I got it cleaned up and painted..."

"You did a good job."

"Thanks." He grinned at me. "Tell your dad thanks for the lunch. Tet, we'd better get going, or your mum might flog me." Tetra grinned at him.

"Wouldn't that be a sight. Bye Zel!" With that, her and Sheik ran down the driveway and jumped into his car. I waved as they drove away.

"We'd better go, too, Aryll," Link murmured. "Come on." He gave me a quick smile and let go of my hand. My hand held his warmth as I watched them go down the driveway.

"See ya', Zel!" Dark said, running down to his own black bike, and sliding on a helmet. I waved as Dark, Aryll and Link drove out of sight. When I turned back inside, I saw my dad walking inside with the esky and a little packet of what was left of the muffins.

I picked up the almost empty box of muffins as we went past, opened it and casually bit into one, starting up the stairs. Coughing and gagging ensued. "How did they eat these? They're terrible!" Midna glanced up at me from the dining table, grimacing.

"I know. And I ate almost three of them!"

"I'm seriously starting to doubt whether Dark has any tastebuds." I aimed my muffin into the bin from halfway up the stairs. It landed on the edge of the bin, half going where I wanted and the other half tumbling into the sink, earning me a stern look from my father. "The packet says chocolate, but the damned things taste like bananas!"

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 8/12/10**

**Authors Notes:**

Yay! An update in less than a week!

Firstly, I hope you liked the chapter. Yes, Zelda has finished her exams, but that doesn't mean that the fic is over! Oh no, I have a year to cover, remember?

Secondly, yay for the start of ZeLink! Keep reading to see how that progresses.

A huge thank you to everyone who has read this. I have nearly 1000 hits! I nearly fainted when I saw that.

As always, please review. I know from the number of hits that not everyone who is reading is reviewing, so just for you who don't know, i will reply, I promise. As long as there is an address to reply too, that is. Next chapter should be up in about a week. Earlier, if we're lucky!

Bye for now!

buddy w


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

As soon as I had stepped into her house, Shayla had shoved me in the direction of the stairs and poked and prodded me up them. I didn't even get to say hello, let alone tell her to stop poking me, when I found myself in her room, with Jalum sitting on her bed. He put down the magazine he had been pretending to read – as if I wouldn't notice that he'd been holding it upside down, the dumbass – and met my more than slightly confused eyes.

"...Alright guys, I'm slightly scared," I admitted.

"Who were the bastards that beat you up, huh?" Ah, Jalum. He always got straight to the point.

"They were from East Hyrule... why? Hey, Jalum, stop cracking your knuckles like that!"

"Man, those assholes are gonna' get it," he proclaimed.

"Hey, hey! Calm down, boy! It's been, like, what? Six, seven weeks? What brought all this on now?"

"Well, we haven't seen you for that long, Zel," Shayla explained.

"Yes, well, there's no need to go searching for lost time."

"Just give me their names already!"

"Hey, Jalum, calm down! I'm fine, so put those fists _away_!" I went to sit next to him. "You're a little more aggressive than usual," I noted. "And I can't decide whether to slap you back to normal or hug you."

"... The latter would be much more appreciated," he mumbled. I obliged happily, putting my arms around both him and Shayla when she came closer.

"We were worried about you, Zel," she admitted after a moment. I chuckled.

"What for? You both know I can take care of myself." And they should've. Shayla and Jalum had been some of closest friends since we were all little children hanging onto our parents knees. Jalum was a little over two years older than Shayla and I, which, while it made him an awesome tutor, probably didn't help to quell his 'over protective big brother' notions. And, as sweet as they were, we had both occasionally felt their fury. Or, rather, some of our prior boyfriends had.

"Yeah, did you tell them that when you were lying in pieces at the hospital?" Jalum asked gruffly.

"Hey, I'm telling you, it will _never happen again. _So both of you can chill a little."

"Oh, we will. Once we actually hear the full story." So, sighing, I relayed the whole thing back to them. From pretty much the first day of school, when I had first met Link, to my run in with Vaati recently.

"And the midget isn't dead yet because...?" Jalum asked.

"Because I have a feeling that in later life, I don't think my being in jail for murder will offer many career options."

"... True enough," he agreed. "We could get someone to do it for you..."

"Hey, don't even think about it. They make you do jail time for even being associated."

"Why haven't you told Link?" Shayla suddenly put in. "Don't you think he'd appreciate knowing that his friends are bastards?"

"I... just can't. If he didn't believe me, I'd..." I think they understood what I was trying to say.

"Jalum, when Zel starts going out with Link, if you ever kick him out," she turned to face him, "you're so screwed." He scowled and my face had gone slightly red.

"Yeah, yeah. I still think he's a bit of a bastard. I mean, Zel got hurt because of him."

"Please don't blame him," I requested, trying desperately to get my face to cool down.

"Mm," he grunted. "You told anyone else?"

"Well, my friend Sheik knows, but I don't know how. Guy's like a shadow, he is. He seems to know everything..." There was a silence between us, then I decided to speak again. "Could you guys, uh, smile again? You're actually really starting to scare me now." I don't think I had seen them both serious for so long since... well, never. As much as it was touching that they cared about me, really, it was beginning to creep me out a little.

Simultaneously, both their expressions changed to cocky grins, something much more normal for them. I snorted. "Much better." Pause. "And thanks guys."

"No problem," the two of them chimed. Huh, sometimes I think I really had a knack for choosing the strangest friends one could possibly have.

"Hey kids!" My dad pushed open the door of Shayla's room and shuffled in. "Dinner's ready, so come down."

"... Uh, Mr H? What are you wearing?" Jalum asked carefully. Shayla and I were already doing our best not to fall to the floor with our laughter.

"Well, I guess I brought it upon myself," he admitted. "I told little Simi downstairs that her rollerblades were cool and that I'd love to have a go in them, so she made me put these on." He was wearing her tiny little knee and elbow pads, the former just barely around his ankles and the latter around his wrists. The padded gloves were just hanging off his thumbs, as he hadn't even bothered to attempt to don them, lest they might break.

"Next time," Jalum advised, "you may want to be more careful what you say around her. She is the most damned clever little four year old I've ever met. The other day, hell, she hid the tomato sauce under her chair and kept that little electronic flipping dog in front of it. Damn, I've always really hated that little flipping mongrel..." I patted his arm in an attempt to be sympathetic, but I feeling my gesture may have been overwritten by the fact that I was still laughing.

At the bottom of the stairs, Jalum's father pulled me to one side. "I'm hurt, Zelda, you didn't even come to say hello to me!"

"I know, I'm sorry. Your younger son captured me before I had the chance." The last sentence was spoken a little louder, and Jalum looked over his shoulder to flash me a smile before entering the next room.

"How've you been?"

"Better, now that I can use my arm again. You never realise how important something is to you until you've lost it," I spoke sagely.

"Tell me about it." He adjusted his glasses. "Now, your father..."

"Yeah?" I already knew what he wanted to say. After all, he knew my father just as well, perhaps even better, than Jalum knew me.

"What's going on with him? He has these... coughing fits, often?"

"More and more, recently," I admitted, hanging my head.

"You haven't told him to see a doctor?"

"Oh, I have," I assured him. "Many times." It was true. "I know he's taking some pills, but not much more than that. Reckon you'll be able to get something out of him?"

"I'll try," he promised. "Now go eat something." He pushed me towards the door to the other room.

"Gladly, just as long as Jalum hasn't eaten it all already,"

"Heard that!" Jalum called, going past the door, plate piled high with food and mouth already half full.

(xxx)

The morning was frosty was we all piled into the gym. I rubbed my hands together, trying to get warm and at the same time revelling in the fact that I could actually use both arms again. The gym, annoyingly, was always a few degrees colder, or a few degrees warmer than the temperature outside and always the extreme that was the most uncomforable. The two classes sat in the middle of the gym, lounging around waiting for the teachers. I sat next to my friends.

"Arm working?" Tetra asked, poking it once. I flexed my fingers once to show her.

"Yep." It had regained most of its strength, though not all that it had before. Still, I could move it, so I found no reason to get out of classes now. Finally, the two teachers strayed in and began calling the roll of their respective classes. My eyes wandered to Dark, who was doodling on his hand as usual.

"What are you drawing?" I asked. He titled his hand toward me so I could see his obscure drawing. "Do I really want to know what it is?"

"It's Ganon in a leotard," he explained, laughing. I joined him laughing and pushed his hand away.

"That's a truly disturbing thought, Dark," Sheik said over my shoulder.

"I agree," Tetra put in.

"Yes, but now I can deface him when he's wearing a ballet costume!" He prodded his hand quite hard with the pen, leaving little marks all over Ganon's much too exposed body.

Dark and Sheik meandered over to the other side of gym when the teachers announced that today we would be playing tee ball. Link, our classes self nominated captain, stepped out of the huddle and went to the teachers. Winning the coin flip, he nominated to bat and, as captain, was first up to the plate. Or tee. He made a hard swing, propelling the bat into the far corner and ran to first base. He snuck to second as the other class's fielders scrambled and our class cheered.

Unfortunately, the rest of the class didn't find it as easy as Link had to get to the bases. The gym was much smaller than a normal field and as there were twenty people manning it, empty spaces were quite difficult to find. While most people had gotten to first base, many second, and several third, most hadn't got home, where Sheik stood.

I swung the bat in my hand experimentally, tasting its weight. I swung it back a little, and then forward, sending the ball into the middle of the crowd. It went astray, thankfully, and one more person snuck past Sheik at home base. One more for us.

Tetra came after me and I ran as soon as she made contact with the ball, making it easily to second base. As the next person took hold of the bat, I shifted my feet, preparing myself to run. As soon as he brought the bat down, I sprinted to third base, giving Dark a grin as I passed him. I was eager to get home and ran as soon as the next boy hit the ball, but unfortunately it landed at a fielder's foot. He picked it up and threw it to Sheik, who caught it just as I was a step away from the base. I let out a long breath as I ran past him. I turned around glare at him when I stopped, but he just grinned and shrugged.

(xxx)

I stood near one of the walls of the gym, somewhere between first and second base. I wasn't paying particularly close attention to what was happening as the ball very rarely came this way. It just wasn't really a very natural place to hit.

Eloise stood on second base, her arms crossed and eyes narrowed in boredom. Kira stood between her and third base, shifting listlessly from foot to foot. Eloise yawned widely, shook her head slightly and did her best to become more alert. There was one boy on first base, and another just about to swing the bag. As he did, Eloise and Kira shared a glance. The boy from first ran to second, stopping there abruptly. I saw slight disappointment in Kira's eyes.

As the next person swung the bat, the boy from second dashed to third. Or, more truthfully, attempted to dash to third. Kira intercepted him in the middle, doing even less than wincing when he smacked into her. She mirrored his moments for a moment, yelling for someone to throw the ball to third. The boy, angrily pushing past her, made it to the base a split second before the ball did.

Dark picked up the bat, twirling it casually but bringing it backwards as he did. His subtle movement was barely noticed until he swung the bat forward fast, knocking the ball off the tee and sending it down the length of the gym. He raced to first then to second, ensuring that one man got home. Dark gave Sheik a grin as the latter took a practice swing at the ball. Kira and Eloise were both eyeing Dark.

Sheik's ball flew to the other end of the gym, hitting the basketball backboard and rebounding back to the other side once again. Dark ran to third base, but Kira got in the way just as she had the last boy. I heard him growl something unintelligible before pushing past her, knocking her to the ground. She grabbed hold of his ankle and he slowed to a walk, dragging her along behind him. Reaching the base, he swung his leg around and Kira was sent rolling into Vaati who had been minding the base. The two of them ended up tangled on the ground, while Dark stood on the base doing his best not to look too proud of himself. I chuckled just as the bell rang through the loudspeaker.

I walked over to Dark, who was offering his hand to Kira. She looked at it, disgruntled to say the least, and got to her feet alone. He shrugged and turned away.

"Nice job with that," I commented, and he grinned.

"Thanks." Two weights fell around my shoulders and I looked up to see Tetra on one side and Sheik on the other side of Dark, both laughing at Kira, who was complaining quite loudly how brutal Dark had been, pushing her to the ground like that. Bored didn't cover half of the teacher's expression.

(xxx)

As soon as I heard footsteps behind me, I grabbed my lock and shoved it into my pocket. Dark squatted down next to me and peered over my shoulder into the locker. I cocked my head, curious as to what he was looking for, when he pulled out my math book, flicked through it cursorily and then put a corner into his mouth and ripped it with his teeth. I smacked him on the shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing?" He grinned at me madly, with little bits of paper poking out from between his teeth. He turned to the back of the locker bay and spat all the little shreds of my poor, defiled math book out of his mouth.

"At first glance, your book looked surprisingly appetizing," he told me.

"... Yes. Of course it did," I agreed caustically. "Didn't you bring lunch?" He just grinned again as he wandered over to his own locker.

"He tends to do that," Sheik put in, coming up beside me.

"Thanks for the warning." I was looking at my book, turning it round and round in my hands, horrified.

"That's why, this year, all my books are hard covered." I glanced behind us into his locker, and sure enough, all his books had at least a plastic cover with a thick cardboard back.

"I'll have to remember to get some of those."

(xxx)

There was a loud noise... somewhere close. It was constant and annoying and even more than that, it wouldn't let me fall back asleep. I groaned groggily as I turned over and pushed myself out of bed, stumbling down the corridor in what I hoped to be the vague direction of the noise. It was coming from my father's room.

As I pushed open the door, I realised what it was. Coughing. Violent, painful, loud coughing. I started, finally awake, and peered around to find my father on the bed on his knees, hands to his chest as he coughed. I ran to him but sat there uselessly, until he raised a hand and pointed to the dresser.

I stumbled over their blindly, my hands groping for anything I thought would come in handy, until they landed on the little bottle of pills. I handed him the bottle, clumsily tipping two of the little pills into his hand and hurried to the adjoining bathroom to fetch him a glass of water. The coughing abated for a moment after he took the pills, but he started shuddering a moment later, staggering over to the bathroom sink before I could stop him. He leaned over the sink, breathing heavily, then the next second he was retching.

I took his constant spot and put a hand on his forehead, even though his short hair didn't need holding back. My other hand went to his back, where I pat him awkwardly. Nothing came up his throat for a moment, until I saw him throw up some blood.

After a few more coughs and a little more blood, he stumbled back to the bed to lie down, closing his eyes immediately. Panicked, I turned to reach for something, _anything_, then heard him roll over and cough again. The next second, I had spun back around and there was blood on the sheets. The rise and fall of his chest, though he was still partially conscious, was becoming more uneven.

"Midna!" My voice had come out in a hoarse squeak. I swallowed and tried again. "Midna!"

"Mm..." came her sleepy reply.

"Come here!" She must have recognised the urgency in my voice and had hurried into the room a few seconds later. "I... don't know what to do," I admitted.

"Call the ambulance," she said after a moment in a very small voice. She dashed out of the room and then back in, holding the phone. "I've dialled already."

"H... Hello?"

"_Hello, how may I help you?"_ replied the voice at the other end.

"I need an ambulance," I said, my voice getting smaller and smaller. At her question, I dictated our address to her.

"_We're sending someone right over. Can you tell me what happened?"_ I did my best to, but in my frantic state I'm afraid it didn't come out very coherently. _"Just breathe for a moment, dear. Can you tell, is he conscious now?"_

I glanced at him, and answered, frightfully, "No. But... he's still breathing."

"_Alright, the ambulance should be there in a moment, could you run down and open the door for them?"_ I thrust the phone into Midna's hand and ran down the stairs so fast it was a miracle I didn't fall over my own feet. Just as I opened the door, two paramedics bustled in.

"Were you the one who called?" they asked, though they were already half way down the corridor. "Where is the patient?"

"Up the stairs, first door to the left," I told them shakily. Up there, while they checked his vitals, again I had to retell them what had happened.

"Could you grab the medicine you told us you gave him?" As I did, he asked, "Does he have any sort of condition you know of that requires him to take these?"

"He... didn't tell us anything."

"It's alright, kids. We'll take him to the hospital for a couple days, and keep him under surveillance." So, with Dad on the stretcher, they carried him tenderly down the stairs and into the ambulance, Midna and I following closely.

"There's only room for one of you in here, I'm sorry," the other paramedic spoke. He turned to me. "Can you drive?"

"I... no. But I can get a ride there. Midna, you go with them, I'll get there as soon as possible," I said, putting my arm around her shaking shoulders.

They were about to drive off when one of the paramedics thought to tell me, "Hyrule General Hospital. We won't be able to see him straight away, but your sister will be there."

As soon as they had gone two houses down the street, I ran inside and picked up my phone. I had to dial the number twice, my fingers had become so clumsy in their haste, and had to wait for it to ring eight times before he picked up.

"Hello?" Link mumbled. I heard him yawn.

"Link, could you... could you take me to hospital?"

"I... Zelda? Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm... fine. But I need to get to the hospital for my dad."

"Give me five minutes," he told me, and I could hear the jingling of keys in his hands and the scratch of a pen on paper as probably scrawled a note for his sister. "I'll be there."

"Thank you," I whispered just as the line went dead.

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 10/12/2010 at an ungodly hour.**

**Author's Notes:**

To all who are reading this story, I am so sorry that this chapter is over a week late! I just kind of got caught up in stuff...

Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know, I put in heaps of OC's, but they aren't really that important. I just put them in for lack of will to remember real characters from the games. :)

As always, please review. The next chapter should be up in about two weeks or so. Sorry about the extension of deadline. So far, I have tried to update every week, but that's just getting too hard now.

Thanks for reading!

buddy w


	9. Chapter 9

***Chapter 9 starts in Link's POV**

Chapter 9

I lifted my head slightly, to find a few locks of golden hair strewn across my arm. Taking care not to move my arm now, or shake the table that I had fallen asleep on, I straightened my back and looked around.

We were still in the hospital waiting room. I had fallen asleep with my arms on a low table, Zelda right next to me. Midna was curled on the couch, her face twisted into a frown of worry even though she slept.

Zelda's head was against my arm, and she was warm in her sleep, though the room was frosty in the early morning. I put my hand on her hair and moved it away of her peaceful face. Putting my head back on my arm, I let my eyes droop closed once again, sleep dragging me down once again.

(xxx)

A door slammed somewhere in the distance, jerking me awake. I grumbled groggily, and dropped my face into my hands. Zelda had moved a few inches over, so she was no longer leaning against my arm. I stood up clumsily, stumbling for a couple steps until my balance returned to me. The waiting room was still empty, sans the three of us, though I spotted a few nurses bustling in other rooms nearby.

I stretched my arms out above my head, my stiff back cracking a little as I did. A nurse ambled into the room and spotted me with wide eyes.

"You're awake," she pointed out.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks for that." Only informing me of the painfully obvious. With a quiet, "oh..." she walked back out of the room. I snorted and plonked back into my chair, finding nothing better to do. Zelda let out a long breath.

"Link...?" she said quietly, though not opening her eyes.

"Still here," I replied.

"Why didn't you go home?" Now she slowly opened her eyes and leaned backwards in her chair. She winced as she rolled her shoulders, stiff from sleeping on the table.

"It wouldn't have been right to just leave you two here. And besides, it was after two in the morning and I was dog tired." She gave a weak chuckle.

"Come on, let's go find someone to ask where my dad is." I followed her hurriedly as she wound her way past the tables and chairs in this room and to the reception desk in the next. "Um, excuse me," she spoke to the lady sitting behind the desk. "I wanted know which room a patient is in?"

"Alright..." she leaned forward and reached behind her computer to turn it on. "Was he brought here by ambulance or otherwise?"

"Ambulance." The lady behind the desk typed something into her computer.

"His name?"

"Daphnes Harknian." She typed something, presumably his name, into her computer.

"Ah, here he is. Ward 16, just down the hall, second door to the right. His bed is the nearest to the window."

"Thanks." Zelda strode back into waiting room to wake Midna. "Hey, Midna, wake up!" She poked her sister hard in the arm, and then once again, harder this time, in the stomach. The little girl barely stirred. I squat down beside her.

"Hey, Midna," I said near her ear. "Wake up." I poked her in the neck, but it didn't do anything. Well, the technique had always worked with Dark. "Wake u-up!" All of a sudden, she started awake, her arms flailing to the sides. One of them caught me hard on the side of head, causing me to fall backward on my behind to the floor. Zelda laughed.

"Ow!"

"... Ow," Midna repeated, rubbing the side of her arm. "Link, your head is hard."

"You have good self defence for someone who was still half unconscious," I told her sourly, rubbing the side of my head.

"Can we go see dad?" Midna asked, turning to Zelda. When her older sister nodded, Midna clambered to her feet.

"Ssh," Zelda whispered as we came to the door of Ward 16. Carefully, she pushed the door open.

Mr Harkinian was lying on a bed, as the nurse had said, that was the closest to the window. He turned to us we entered, giving his daughters a small smile.

"Hey kids!" Zelda and Midna hurried to either side of him, hugging him simultaneously then placing themselves firmly on his bed, looking like they wouldn't be moving for a while.

"Gave us quite a scare last night, Mr H," I told him. He nodded slowly, looking a little embarrassed about goddesses know what.

"Yeah, I apologise for that," he said. "Guess I... wasn't very well."

"Huh. To put it lightly," Zelda muttered, looking crossly at her dad. I could still remember the look in her eyes last, so... terrified. It brought back my own haunting memories, of the time _they _never woke up. Their clouded, expressionless eyes, motionless limbs, still heart, never to thud again...

"I'll, uh, wait outside," I excused. "Just call if you need me."

(xxx)(Zelda's POV)

For the first time in several miserable weeks, the sun was shining down again and the day was exceedingly warm. A dull wind blew half-heartedly, rustling the leaves and making sure nobody's hair stayed still for a moment. A few clouds loomed in the distance, but best not to dwell on that for the moment.

I did my best to brush my hair out of my face and make it stay that way as I entered the school gates. Approaching the locker bay, I saw Tetra walking up the hill toward me. She had a very resigned look on her face and as I met here eyes, she looked very pointedly to the person who was walking beside her. They grinned and waved enthusiastically and I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Dark?" I spluttered. "Why in the name of all that is holy are you wearing a _dress_?" He had come close enough for me to see him properly now, but that didn't at all encourage my gaping mouth to close. He simply shrugged.

"It's gonna be hot today, so I figured a dress would be more appropriate than pants," he explained off-handedly. I leaned closer to him for a moment.

"Are you... wearing makeup too? And why on _earth_ is your hair tied up like that?" He shrugged again, running a hand through his high ponytail.

"Boys are allowed to wear shorts you know," Tetra pointed out, doing her best not to stand too close to him, lest she catch... whatever he had.

"As you've pointed out several times already," Dark replied. There was a pause while each of us figured out something to say.

"Alright, who are you betting against and how much are they giving you?" Tetra finally asked stubbornly.

"Sheik. Twenty two rupees," he replied sullenly. Speak of the devil, Sheik walked into school, with a huge grin on his face.

"You look hot, Dark," he commented between his laughter.

"Yeah, yeah." Sheik ducked under Dark's angry flying fist and hurried to his locker, still laughing.

(xxx)

I stomped over to sit with a few other boys from my class. As soon as I had sat down beside them, they dragged me into the conversation, as if I had been there all the time.

It was lunch time, I was shoeless, had dirt and gravel lingering on my back and grumpy. All three courtesy of my _lovely_ friends.

I glared over at Sheik, Dark and Tetra, where the first two were busy refilling my shoes with whatever covered the ground and Tetra standing over them like a slave driver. If I had been in any other position, the scene would surely have been hilarious. But, as it was, I had already had two shoe-fulls of dirt poured down my back and was not particularly looking forward to the next ones.

"Hey Zel!"

"... Hi Link," I replied. "Lend a hand. Or shoe." I pointed to the others. "I'm sure they'd appreciate it."

"Actually, I, uh, wanted to ask you how your dad was doing," he said awkwardly after a moment. My cheeks became warm at my prior meanness.

"Oh." I stood up and started walking with him, careful so as not to step on something pointy. "He's fine, for now. Still won't tell me much, and without his permission, the nurses won't let me see his file or anything, even if I could decipher any of it. So... still in the dark, I guess."

"He at home? I could visit –"

"Nah, still at the hospital. 'For surveillance' they told me." I sighed. It was frustrating, to say the least. I was entitled to information! But it appeared that just about everyone else didn't think so. I glance over at my other three 'friends'. They were still busily occupied with filling my shoes with as much dirt as physically possible. They all looked up a moment later and waved merrily. I narrowed my eyes at them, though I doubt they would've been able to see it from a distance.

"Awesome friends, huh?" Link asked me, chuckling once.

"Huh. Sure." Truly, they were. But there was no way I was going to admit it while in this situation. Link and I had stopped just behind a tree, my poor socks getting saturated with dirt.

"But seriously, where would you find any better ones?"

"I don't know. The lost dog home perhaps." He laughed, then all of a sudden he was in front of me. I opened my mouth to ask him a question, but in that moment, he leant forward and his lips pressed against mine. My eyes widened in surprise, then closed. Somebody wolf whistled close to us, and I sighed as I pulled away from Link. "And... Dark completely ruined the moment."

"Thanks, cousin," Link added, looking irritably at him.

"No problem-a. You two were just looking so snug there, I thought, 'hey, why not join in?'" Dark said cheerfully.

"You're not attractive enough," Link decided.

"Aw, what? I thought I looked pretty damn good in this." He gestured down at the dress he was wearing.

"Whose are they anyway?" I asked, momentarily distracted.

"Another cousin of ours," Link put in. He faced Dark. "And I'll tell you now, she called me this morning, laughing weirdly, telling me she had been robbed, but the dumb shit had only taken her old school uniform."

"Hmph. Dumb shit indeed," Dark said.

On our way back to class, Link lingered back and when the others turned the corner of the gym he grabbed my wrist and bought me backwards. He kissed me again before I could make a sound, which shut me up pretty damn well.

(xxx)

The next day at school, I opened my locker to be met and pretty much suffocated by a pungent stench. I spluttered and managed to stand up, trying to breathe as evenly as possible. "Dark!"

"... Yah?" He was leaning against the lockers on the other side of the bay.

"I think you're making my locker smell funny."

"What?" He took a few steps forward and sniffed my locker for himself. "Phew! I think you're right, but I only moved in yesterday!"

"Why's your stuff in her locker anyway?" Sheik asked, walking into the locker bay.

"My lock's jammed and I don't want to leave my stuff in there without being able to lock it up," Dark explained. "But how could it smell that bad, that fast?"

"Who knows," Sheik decided, shaking his head. I agreed with him; it was a disturbing thought at the least.

First period was perhaps the most painful part of the entire day. Somehow the teachers had determined my timetable so the first subject of the day was either not worth listening to, or much too difficult to listen to at a time so early in the morning.

"Ms Harkinian, have you been listening?" No.

"Of course, sir." Mr A stood at the front of the class, arms crossed over his chest, glaring at me.

"Would you like to tell me the answer to this question?"

"Sine of x is equal to 60 degrees, therefore x is equal to root 3 over 2." His glare just got even darker as he nodded slowly and wrote the answer, which I had just told him, up on the board.

"Well you worked that out fast," Link noted, a little annoyed. "Your book isn't even open, and neither is your calculator."

"We were meant to have memorised basic values for trigonometry angles weeks ago," I reminded him quietly.

"_Please excuse the interruption," _a voice over the school intercom boomed. _"Could Zelda Harkinian please report to the general office immediately? Again, could Zelda Harkinian please report to the general office immediately."_

"Hurry up and leave before he decides that math is more important," Link urged quietly, gesturing at the teacher, who was giving me a funny look from the front of the class. I quickly scrambled to gather up my books into a pile, but Link pushed my hands away and said, "Just go, I'll get those."

So I did. My heart, stupidly, was beating at three times its normal pace, I was sure. I could feel it pulsing in my ears. I didn't know why, however. I... didn't think I had done anything wrong.

Perhaps it was Midna. But then... wouldn't they have called her? Unless she was hurt. But no, she couldn't be; my little sister was the toughest thing after a tractor tire. One thought intruded into my thoughts, and decided that it was more than happy to stay.

...Dad?

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 15/12/10**

**Author's Note:**

Hi there everybody!

I'm so terribly sorry about how long this has taken me. Real life and school has finally caught up with me, as well as a severe case of writers' block.

Well, I sincerely hope that this chapter was worth the wait!

The ZeLink component was a little slow until here. I apologise to all you fans that it has taken me this long, but honestly that wasn't the real aim for this story. It just kind of... happened.

Well, I think that's about it. Next chapter shouldn't take as long as this one, I hope.

Please keep reading, and reviews are much appreciated. I love every single one I get.

Hope you enjoyed it.

buddy w


	10. Chapter 10

***Once again, this chapter starts in Link's POV. **

****Oh, and about halfway through, it switches to 3****rd**** person. Don't worry, I'll tell you when it does. **

* * *

Chapter 10

As Zelda left the room, I caught a glance of her face. It was the closest thing I have seen to pure terror in a long time. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Getting into a bit of trouble at school wasn't that bad.

As the teacher continued on with his long winded explanation about nothing of consequence, I was sure, I realised that there was nothing she could've been called to the office for. Unless... she was involved in that graffiti attack of the school a few days ago... Nah, I couldn't see Zelda involved in that sort of thing.

Something else, perhaps...

Her father, maybe? The terror on her face made it relatively clear, thinking about it again, that he was probably one of the first things that came to her mind. I was starting to get a little nervous now, too.

"Uh, sir, could I... get a drink?" I asked the teacher. He eyed me dubiously.

"In the middle of my class"

"I apologise sir, but I'm really quite thirsty." Perhaps I should spin some bull about needing to take medication...

"But surely you can wait until next period." Initiate Plan B.

"No, no sir I can't," I wailed dramatically. "You see, I need to take these tablets, otherwise I'll get little boils everywhere on my body, and they ooze with this green pus like stuff, and if anyone else even comes in contact with the pus, they'll get the little boils too, and then we'll end up with this whole pandemic on our hands! Now, seriously, wouldn't that just be _awful_? And to think, _you'll_ be the one everyone will blame! Now, do you really want tha-"

"Go, go!" he yelled. "Just stop winding this crap!" I grinned as I hurried out of the classroom. Ah, the faces on so many of my classmates had been priceless.

There was a blast of cool air as I walked into the office area. I could see Zelda talking to one of the office ladies, one hand clenched tightly around her other wrist.

"-an urgent phone call for you a few minutes ago. They left a number for you to call back on."

"Do..." She swallowed as her voice came out hoarsely. "Do I have permission to call them back from my own phone?" The lady handed her a slip of paper with a phone number scribbled down.

"Or course, dear," the lady replied, sounding something close to sympathetic. Not good, not good, not good...

I followed Zelda as she headed out of the school to sit on the curb of the car park and dialled the number she had been given slowly. I crept to sit beside her, and she looked up at me with surprise for barely a moment before holding the phone up to her ear.

"_Hello?"_ answered the voice at the other end of her phone.

"Hello," Zelda answered quietly. "My name is Zelda Harkinian, you called my school and asked for me to call back?"

"_Yes, Ms Harkinian_," the lady at the other end said, becoming a little gentler. It scared me a little. "_Umm... how far are you from the Hyrule general Hospital_?"

"About forty minutes drive, but I don't have a car."

"_Alright... you are aware that you're father has been staying here for supervision purposes for the last... five days_?"

"Y... Yes." Zelda's free hand was clutched tightly in a ball on her knee, her skin stretched and white, and her entire arm was quaking. I put my hand on it, intending to calm her down a little, but I'm afraid my hand was shaking too. "What's happened? Is he alright?"

"_He had a heart attack less than an hour ago_," the woman said with a gust of breath that sounded terrible over the phone.

"But... but he..."

"_I'm... I'm afraid that we couldn't do anything about it, honey."_

"He... No, he couldn't... That would mean... he's..." Tears started to roll down her cheek.

"_I'm so sorry, dear." _The voice sounded sympathetic enough, I guess. I wondered how many times she had had to do this. _"Listen, I think it would be best for you to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Ask for Dr Fraser and..." _The phone slipped from her hand, landing heavily on the pavement beside our feet. I wrapped my arms around her tightly, feeling a few tears come out of my own eyes. I'd really liked that man.

"You... you shouldn't have left class, you know," Zelda whispered, her voice watery.

"At a time like this, that's all you can think about," I replied, a sad little laugh escaping my mouth. Zelda replied in kind, her sobbing becoming tragic as she leaned into my shoulder.

We certainly missed the rest of the period, I know that for sure. I finally coerced Zelda to stand up and started leading her to a car. "Come on, you need to get to the hospital."

"But... I..."

"Wait here a sec." I left her leaning against the car and hurried to a nearby classroom. I ducked underneath the window, threw a rock up and raised my head up for just a moment. In a few seconds, Sheik had hurried out of the classroom and followed me around a corner.

"Hey, Link, wha... what's wrong?" He eyed me curiously for a moment, taking in my red eyes and tear soaked shirt.

"I need to borrow your car," I replied quickly. "Zel... Zelda got a call from the hospital. Her father... didn't... make it..." My voice trailed off, becoming smaller. Sheik's eyes widened, then he pinched the bridge of his nose, like he always did when he was doing his best not to be overcome with emotion.

"How's she doing?"

"Not so peachy."

"I... didn't think so." He handed me his car keys. "Call me when you know more." I nodded and ran off back to the car park. Half way, I turned back and threw him the keys of my Epona.

"So you can get home," I called back to him, my voice cracking a little.

Zelda had sunk down to her haunches beside the car, her hands covering her face. She was still shaking. I cleared my throat before I spoke.

"Zel... come on." I pulled her up as gently as I could and helped her into the car, though I'm sure she didn't need it. The whole drive was spent in misery, as she curled up on the chair and glared out the window, sniffing every now and again and wiping away her tears.

In the hospital, she asked for Dr Fraser as soon as we arrived, and was, surprisingly, taken to him immediately. We were ushered into a room where a lone man sat at his desk, laboriously filling out paperwork. His greying hair was still shot through with streaks of brown and his eyes held a dull sadness.

"Ms Harkninian?" he asked as we entered slowly. Zelda nodded. "And your companion?"

"I... I want him to be here..."

"Alright." He let out a long breath. I reached out and took Zelda's hand as he pointed us to the seats before his desk. "You've heard the news, I'm sure, and I am dreadfully sorry. His heart attack was incredibly severe, and he passed away before we were able to get there."

"Ho... How could he just...?" Tears started falling from her eyes again, and it was all I could do to not let any leak out of mine.

"Your father had recently been diagnosed with coronary heart disease," he told us. "That means there wasn't enough oxygen reaching the heart and the blood circulation slows or becomes uneven. It occurs when the small blood vessels get even smaller and narrower, which they can't really afford to do. It is usually when a person is very overweight, or a heavy smoker or drinker."

Zelda choked on her tears. "But... he wasn't..."

"He wasn't any of those," I finish for her.

"We believe, in his case, that it was passed through his genetics," the doctor said heavily.

"Why... why didn't you do anything about it?" Zelda stood up and started pacing furiously, not bothering to wipe her tears away. I had seen this before, the second stage of grief. First came the sadness, then the anger. "Why didn't you help him?" Her voice was escalating.

"We... we tried," the doctor said, moving his hands in a placating gesture. "Truly we did. He was given pills for it, but he was too far gone for them to help him very much."

"So he was dying, and he didn't tell me?" Zelda had stopped and clenched her fist angrily. "Why didn't you _do_ anything?"

"I'm... I'm very sorry for your loss."

(xxx)(3rd person)

It seemed like even the Goddesses were crying. Rain lashed the windows of Link's house violently and though it was past three in the morning, Link, Dark, Sheik and a slightly ill Tetra all sat awake in the living room, swathed in blankets and sleeping bags.

"D'you... think they're okay?" Dark asked. The smile had truly been wiped off his face.

"No," Link replied sullenly. "I can tell you for certain they're not."

"Think they're asleep?"

"No," Aryll answered, coming down the stairs and settling herself against her older brother. Link put an arm around her and helped her to get under the blankets. "How do you think they're going to get along now? I mean, alone."

"Same way we do, kid," Link said quietly. "With some hard work and a lot of help from their friends."

"I'm going to see Zelda," Sheik said, and Tetra blew her nose miserably.

He went up the stairs and down the hall a little way, pushing open the door to Link's bedroom where Zelda and Midna were supposed to be sleeping.

"Hey, Zel..." Zelda whipped her head around, her breath catching in her throat. She hurriedly wiped away the tears that had been trickling down her cheeks.

"What... what are you doing here?"

"Came to see how you are," he answered with a shrug.

"I'm... alive." Sheik shook his head. That was quite possibly the worst choice of words for this situation. He didn't say anything else, just put his arms around her as she let loose her tears once again.

Link wearily climbed up the stairs and entered his room carefully. Sheik let Zelda go and Link took up his spot. As Sheik closed the door behind him as he left, Link opened his mouth, but found that he couldn't think of anything to say. He knew how she felt, and that there wasn't any words that would make anything better. Instead, he just smoothed down her hair and whispered, "It won't always hurt this much, I _swear_."

(xxx)

They were woken by the sound of a clanging pot. Midna groaned and turned over in her sleep. Link's hand was still around Zelda's waist and he moved it quickly as she stirred. There was a knock on his door just before it creaked open.

"Mornin' all," came a cheery voice.

"What the _hell_ are you doing up so early, Sheik?" Link muttered hoarsely.

"It's past ten in the morning and we're making pancakes," he announced. Link started.

"What? You're using my stove?" Zelda let out a long moan in her sleep and moved so that she was leaning against Link again. She had been so comfortable...

"Yeah, Aryll said we could."

"Oh." He shook Zelda's shoulder gently. "Hey, Zel, get up." She let out a long breath and let her eyes open.

"Yeah... I'm up." She pushed herself away from Link, who looked just a tad disappointed. There was a sound of loud sizzling coming from downstairs and Sheik hurried off.

"What did you do?" he yelled down to them.

"Nothing," Dark replied, a little too quickly. Tetra laughed, probably at Dark.

Link led Zelda down the corridor and pointed her to the bathroom. "Tetra bought over some stuff from your house last night, for you and Midna. Come downstairs when you're ready. I'm going to go make sure those idiots don't burn down my house." Zelda nodded at him and turned around to start shuffling through the bag.

When she got downstairs, Link was sitting at the bench opposite the stove, where Sheik and Dark were manning the cooking. Well, Sheik was doing his best to make breakfast, while also trying to stop Dark from eating all the batter. Tetra was standing near Link, piling the ready pancakes onto plates and throwing several toppings on top of them, all of which seemed to consist of some form of sugar. Midna sat down next to Zelda, her head lying on her arms.

The seven of them ate breakfast together. Or at least, attempted to. Sheik, Dark and Tetra continuously threw jibes at each other, with Aryll and Link throwing in the occasional snide comment here and there. Midna and Zelda stayed quiet, the latter having cut up her pancake into little bits and was pushing them around her plate without actually eating anything.

"I'm... not really hungry," she excused finally. "I think I'll go take a shower or something."

"There are clean towels in the linen closet just opposite the bathroom," Link told her. She nodded absently and headed up the stairs. It was a quiet for a moment, until Midna pushed away from the table.

"I'm... um... yeah..." She didn't even bother to finish her sentence as she walked away. When she too had disappeared from sight, Link and Dark sighed in union.

"If she stays like this forever, I officially won't know here anymore," Dark decided grumpily, though his voice was a little sad.

"She's not going to stay like this forever," Sheik assured. "You just need to give them time to heal."

"In that case, let's put some morphine down her throat and put some stitches through it," Tetra suggested half heartedly.

"Only you could suggest stitching someone up when they're hurting on the _inside_," Link muttered.

"Hey, I don't hear _you_ suggesting anything." Link snorted and felt the corner of his mouth twitch upwards. It was hard for him to imagine not being friends with Tetra, now, but he hadn't been last year, or the several years before.

(xxx)

Zelda sat upstairs for hours. Every now and then, one of them would wander upstairs, only to find the door to Link's room still closed. They never even heard the shower go on.

In the late afternoon, an impatient Link knocked brusquely on, technically, his own door.

"Yeah," Zelda replied softly. Link entered to find her sitting on the bed, nose in a book. It was so familiar a position to find her in, he almost smiled.

"You... alright?" he asked.

"Mmm."

"The school called today," he informed her casually. "They wanted to know if you'd be there on Monday, but I told them I'd call back later..."

"Yeah, I'll be there. And so will Midna."

"You... don't have to go?" He unintentionally phrased it as a question. "I mean, I'm sure they won't mind-"

"We'll go," she said again, firmly. "He would've wanted us to."

"If you're sure..."

"I am." Silence stretched out between them, until finally Link sighed.

"Talk to me, Zel. Talk to any one of us. We want to help you get through this," he urged.

"I... I can't," she said in a choked voice. Link shook his head and backed out of the room. He couldn't help but notice that, in the entire time he had been there, while her eyes had been on the pages of the book, they hadn't been moving along the text and neither had the page been turned.

(xxx)

The house was quiet, but for the occasional whir of the dishwasher or buzz of the fridge. The couch in the living room had been pulled out, on which two sleeping bags had been messily laid out. Two others lay on the ground, recognisably Link, with his golden hair strewn across his face and Sheik, with a book still open on his stomach where it had fallen from his hand when he had fallen asleep.

Zelda crept down the stairs in thick track pants and a loose shirt, arm curled around a little box that she held just under her armpit. As she crept through the living room and into the next room, she was surprised to find the television already playing. Loud explosions and squeaking sounds were emitting from the speakers on either side of the television. On the couch, engrossed in the movie that was playing, were Tetra and Dark.

"What are you doing still awake?" Zelda whispered to them from just behind the couch. Tetra squealed a little as her head spun around to see who it was and Dark actually tumbled right off the couch and landed with a thump on the carpeted floor.

"Couldn't sleep," Tetra replied, letting out a long breath as she recognised Zelda.

"Did you have to sneak up on us like that?" Dark grumbled as he brushed himself off.

"I... Sorry, I was just..."

"What are those?" Dark grabbed the box out of Zelda's grip and inserted one of the DVD's into the player. It started paying automatically, and they were met with childhood videos of Zelda and her family.

It may sound awfully cliché, watching only family movies after a close family member had passed away, but Zelda had run out of options. How many times had she called his phone, just because she was afraid that she might forget his voice? Every time, after exactly eleven rings, it went to voicemail, and she was met with his silly little message, '_Good day, this is Daphnes Harkinian speaking. If you want information about education, please leave a message. If I know you, please leave a message. If you want information about the bodies, please call back at a later time.' _Pause. '_I swear, that last bit was a joke. Here comes the beep.' _

Curled up on the couch, with two of her best friends beside her, Zelda's attention was firmly planted on the screen, as she tried to store the sound of his voice, the lines on his face, every tiny little movement he made, so she wouldn't forget him. As she began to fall asleep, a thought ran through her mind:

Perhaps memorising all this would take more than one night...

(xxx)

Zelda and Midna had just about been dragged out of the house by Sheik, Dark and Tetra, with Aryll tagging along, and Link was quite happy to be alone for a little while. As much as he loved all his friends dearly, seven was quite a crowd. He sat now at his dining room table, sorting through mail he had just picked up from Zelda's house.

_Junk mail, bill, random notice, junk mail... _Then into his hands came a large envelope, heavy and thick and not very bendable. Flipping it over in his hands, he found that it was addressed to Zelda and not her father. The little stamp in the corner looked vaguely familiar and he stared at it until he registered in his mind where it was from.

Hylia High School.

Curiosity piqued, he ripped open the envolope and read the covering letter.

_To Miss Zelda Harkinian,_

_We are very pleased to inform you that your scholarship attempt has ended up successful. We would be honoured for you to join us at Hylia High next year and the ones after to complete your schooling at our wonderful school._

_We would like to hold an interview with you at 3:30 on Tuesday to get to know you a little more. Keep in mind that this interview will not affect your scholarship, as that is already yours. It may confirm the amount of scholarship, however._

_Once again, a huge congratulation for doing so well in your exam and we are looking forward to speaking with you soon._

"_Thank you, from the Vice Principal here at Hylia High School, Mr Vincent Parish."_

Link stared at it in utter confusion, trying and ultimately failing at trying to figure out what the _hell_ he would do.

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded in the very early hours of the morning on 16/12/2010**

**Author's Notes:**

Hiya! Well, I got this chapter up as fast as I could. I don't really want this author's notes to drag, so I'll make it as brief as possible.

First and foremost, I hope you all liked the chapter! I know, a little sad, but I really needed something like this to happen so I could write the first scene that I thought of when I started writing this story.

Secondly, a HUGE thank you to everyone who reads/reviews this story. I'm so pleased by the number of people who have my on their fav's list, alerts list, or who just read this in general.

I think that's all, except for the usual request. Please leave me a review.

Thanks for reading.

buddy w


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Daphnes Harkinian's funeral was only for his closest friends, and of course, family. Zelda had stood with her arms around Midna the entire time, occasionally choking back a sob and wiping away a tear that slid down her cheek. Link stood just behind her, doing his best not let his bottom lip tremble. Sheik and Dark stood beside him, both in stoic silence and Tetra was just off to the side, her hands clenched tightly behind her back.

Shayla stood beside her father, Jalum's arm around her shoulder. Shayla's father gripped his wife's hand tightly. They had been the best of friends, he and Daphnes. They had graduated school together, gone to college together, heck, for a while, they had even worked in the same department of a workplace! Daphnes was the man who'd always come to him at one in the morning, complaining that his daughter's had gone off to camp or were staying at a friend's house and that he was in desperate need of a good coffee and some pizza. Memories, be happy or not, hurt.

When the priest had finished his bit, the body of Daphnes Harkinian, cleaned and dressed up for the 'occasion' was hoisted onto the shoulders of four youths and carried away, being taken away to be cremated.

"No!" Zelda gasped. She let go of her younger sister and started after her father's body. "No, please, don't leave me...! Don't, please... Dad!" Link went after her, gripping her shoulders and trying to hold her back. She thrashed in his arms, never once ceasing her pitiful screaming or her insistence of going forward. In a moment of hesitation, she broke away from him and ran to her father, put her hand on his cheek and sobbing. "No, no! Please, Dad, you can't... you can't leave us! Please..."

Dark, Sheik, Tetra and Link all rushed forward to bring their friend back. She struggled against them for a moment as the four boys carrying her father's body continued forward. Then, finally surrendering, she turned around and cried into Link's chest. He held her there tightly.

(xxx)

That night, Link promptly decided that if he had to endure any more sadness, grief, confusion or anything even relatively close to any of those emotions, he would explode. The Goddesses must have heard him, he was sure, when Vaati and Kafei turned up at his door, smiling brightly and insisting that he come to the party tonight.

He agreed, and, against his prior will, got ridiculously drunk.

Even as he opened his mouth, another can of beer was passed through the throng of the crowd and thrust into his hand. He took it willingly, cheering loudly as he lounged against a wooden chair and watched his friend get intimate enough with a girl that it would've been entirely inappropriate had they all been sober.

"Mmm... that last one was nice," Vaati noted as he reclaimed his spot between Link and Kafei. He wiped his lips just as he raised his beer to his mouth.

"She was," Kafei agreed, eyeing the girl that Vaati had just kissed as she giggled with her friends.

"I bet you that mine was better," Link said, pointing to the girl that he had made out with before.

"What was she, like your fifth?"

"Fourth," Link corrected. He was very glad he wasn't thinking straight at the moment, or he may just have killed himself with guilt. "I think I'll go get another drink," he excused, standing up unsteadily and tottering his way outside. As much as he enjoyed a good game of spin the bottle with girls that he had never laid eyes on before, getting completely smashed was just that little much better.

As he picked up another bottle, two arms slinked around his waist.

"Crack open another, will you?"

"Hey, Ruto," Link smirked, turning around so she was now wrapped around his front. "Haven't seen you for a while. Where you been?"

"Oh, you know," she dismissed. "Around." She was wearing a tight blue dress that left very little of her anatomy to the imagination. The hem was pulled a little higher as she pressed herself into Link. The blue streaks through her hair shone under the moon, matching the colour of her dress and accentuating the sparkle in her eyes a little. "So...?" Her hands flitted down to his stomach and lingered there a little, and he felt a little hot in his gut. "How've you been?"

"Ah, nothing's changed much." Though, if he had stopped to think it through with his drunk, muddled mind, maybe he would've been able to recognise just how much they _had_. But, just as he started to _consider_ to consider how much things had changed, she reached up and pressed her lips against his, immediately intruding into his mouth. It wasn't long before he was willing to respond in kind.

He was jerked away from her roughly by a clenched had around his shoulder. He spun around and was immediately punched in the face.

"...Whoa," he snorted, rubbing his jaw ruefully. "Good morning!" The only response he got was to be punched again, this time in the cheek. He blinked furiously as his bearings came back to him.

"Bastard," the big guy in front of him snarled. "Making out with my girlfriend." He threw another punch, which Link dodged by a hair. Link's movements were sluggish, but so were the other guy's.

The guy came barrelling towards him, and Link caught him and managed to get a kick in to his gut. The other guy coughed and, arms flailing, managed to clap one of Link's ears. So, ears ringing furiously, Link aimed at the guy's face, only to be met with a satisfying crunch. Mm hmm, his nose was broken. Blood flowing terribly down his face and off his chin, the guy shoved him backwards roughly. If it were anywhere else, Link would easily have been able to regain his balance quite easily, even if he were as drunk as he was at this moment. But, as it were, there was a pool behind him, which he fell into, quite ungracefully and with a yelp that, if he had cared, would've been quite embarrassing.

Spluttering, he came back up to the surface, wiping his now soaked hair out of his face. Apparently the swim had propelled him back into reality and he quickly realised that he was, quite simply, an idiot. Kissing other girls? He hadn't realised what a bastard he was. He loved Zelda. Zelda! He loved... Loved?

He paused a moment before hauling himself out of the pool. Loved?

The other guy's nose was still bleeding, and Ruto was fawning over him. As he climbed out of the pool, dripping and cold to the bone, she threw him a little wink before going back to making a fuss over her big, ugly boyfriend. Link checked his watch. Oh crud, it was past one in the morning. He had to get home. To friends that _didn't _get him drunk and allow him to kiss strangers. To his little sister. To Zelda, whom he...

He shook his head in an attempt to both dry his hair and clear his mind, and he decided.

Loved.

(xxx)

When he knocked on the door of his house, Link was still reasonably wet, his clothes were past the point of dishevelled, and he couldn't decide if his mood was closer to sheepish or irritated. He had lost his house keys goddesses-know-where and Vaati, the piss head, had scratched his Epona as he had backed out of the driveway.

Sheik opened the door, rubbing his eyes and his mouth already set into an angry line.

"Well, hello there. I have a sneaking feeling that someone was meant to be back over two hours ago," he greeted nastily.

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Where were you?" Tetra mumbled sleepily, walking down the corridor and yawning widely.

"At a party," Link answered vaguely. He tried to push through the door, but Sheik's arm blocked his way.

"Whose?" Sheik asked.

"I... don't know." And he didn't. Vaati and Kafei had just invited him out, and he had pretty much gone without so much as a 'hang on, let me put on some proper pants'. The other two picked up on this.

"Why are you wearing those?" Tetra questioned, distastefully eyeing his ripped, faded, covered-in-random-colours-of-paint, almost-in-shreds pants. He usually wore them when he was painting people's houses.

"Didn't get a chance to get changed," he mumbled. "Now, may I _please_ enter my own house?"

"Sure. Just as long as you don't come any further the garage, where, did I mention, you'll be sleeping tonight," Sheik told him. "Your stuff's already in there."

"Aw, what? Sheik, stop being an idiot!"

"I'm not. You're drunk, I can see lipstick on your cheek, and Zelda doesn't wear lipstick. I apologise, but morons aren't allowed to sleep in civilized places."

"I... fine!" Link jerked open the door to the garage and went in. Just as Sheik had said, his sleeping bag, an extra blanket and a pillow lay in a pile on the floor.

"Night," Tetra called from inside the actual house, walking away back to her own makeshift bed. Link grunted in response, though he doubted that she would've heard him. Angrily, he rubbed the lipstick off of his cheek and cursed whichever girl there tonight that had worn water-proof make up.

He scrambled into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes, trying his best not to feel like a complete bastard.

(xxx)

"Anybody going to wake Link up?" Dark asked, biting into his toast.

"Nope."

"Nah."

"Huh. Well aren't you two great."

"Yep."

"Sure."

Right on cue, Link wandered blearily into the kitchen, pretty much dragging his feet along and looking utterly miserable. Sheik, Tetra and Dark could tell that the reason for all that misery wasn't completely because of the hangover he was inevitably stuck with. As he walked past Dark, he picked up his coffee mug and just about drained it.

"Hey!"

"Sorry dude, but my head's killing me." He dropped into a chair put his head into his arms on the table and groaned.

"... Is that a bruise?" Dark leaned across the table and poked Link's cheek. At the latter's shout of indignant pain, he nodded his head. "Yep. It's a bruise."

"'Lipstick' do that?" Sheik asked.

"Nope," Link replied sullenly. "Her boyfriend did."

"Huh."

"Saves me doing it," Tetra muttered. "I was going to wait to punch you until the hangover had disappeared so you would actually be able to feel the full pain of it, but I guess he did my job for me."

"Thanks Tet," Link said.

"No problem."

"Why'd you go anyway?" Dark asked.

"Vaati and Kafei turned up at the door, and I said 'sure, why the hell not?'"

There was a pause on the table for a minute. "Did you read the letter?" Even without asking, Link was pretty sure he knew which _damned_ letter they were talking about. He nodded. "So you found out she was moving school, and that seemed like a good enough reason to go get blind-stinking-drunk?"

"Shut up, I know it was stupid," Link defended. "It's just, after the funeral..."

"Well, you could have at least gotten blindingly drunk with the rest of us. None of us were feeling all that flash either," Tetra told him.

"You're not old enough to drink."

"Neither are you," she reminded him. "And you could have at least joined us in drowning our sorrows in soda." Link snorted, though he supposed that _would've_ been the much cleverer option.

"Did she tell any of you about moving schools or whatever?" he asked them glumly.

"Nope."

"Didn't have a clue."

"Uh... yeah, sorta." All heads turned to Sheik, who shrugged and looked away.

"Come on, Sheik! Spill!" Dark insisted.

"She asked me not to tell anyone," he replied, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, well, we all know now anyway," Tetra reminded him.

"Come on, fill us in," Link said.

(xxx)

"So... what do we do?" Link asked, fiddling with the pencil in his hands. "Zelda has an interview in three days, and, if you ask me, she's in no state to go."

"Agreed," Dark said, while the other two nodded.

"Do we try and reschedule it or something?" Tetra suggested.

"No..." Sheik mused. "They'll have other interviews to do so I doubt they'll let us postpone it."

"So...?"

"I say we go."

"We? As in, _we_?" Link questioned.

"Yeah, the four of us. We'll go to the interview, explain to the principal what Zelda's circumstances are and, well, hope for the best I guess," Sheik told them. There was a long pause as the rest of them contemplated this idea.

"I'm in," Tetra decided. Sheik shot her a smile.

"Me too," Dark said.

"Couldn't stop me if you tried," Link added.

(xxx)

"Okay, why the hell is Zelda's score 98 percent, and mine is only 63?" Link asked, comparing his test to his own. He sat in the back seat of Sheik's mum's van, with Sheik driving and Dark riding shotgun – bastard had called it before they were even out of the house! – while he and Tetra sat in the back. "I swear, her mind has all but broken down, and she can still ace math tests."

"What'd she get wrong?" Tetra asked, leaning over and having a look.

"Uh..." Link flicked through the pages. "Forgot to label the axes in one place." Tetra snorted.

"And you, you dumb piece of crap," she poked Link roughly in arm, "how on earth did you get this wrong? Negative 24 plus negative 17 is equal to negative seven? Haven't you been paying any attention in class all year? When you put a negative and positive together, it ends up to being a negative."

"Shut up," Link growled. "I was... worried about Zelda!"

"Oh yes, of course, and while you were off worrying about Zelda, who was getting just about full marks on her test, you were pretty close to failing yours! You know, you'd better not let her see this. Along with this test and your drunken partying the other night, she will leave you sitting there in the dust on your ass, and I'm not going to intervene."

"... Are we almost there?" Link whined loudly, doing his best to change the subject from his abysmal grades in math.

"You're the one with the map, Link," Dark reminded him. "But, lucky for you, I know where we're going. And yes, we're almost there." Link sighed thankfully.

They were headed to Hylia High for Zelda's interview. After breaking into Zelda's house, though Tetra insisted that it wasn't because they had the key, and rummaging through some of her stuff, they had collected a small portfolio containing pictures, certificates, badges and anything else that could be important in order to showcase their friend.

The school grounds they entered were huge; at least five times the size of East Hyrule. None of them could find the will to close their gaping mouths as Sheik drove around the parking lot, trying to find a spot. Link and Dark were practically drooling at the sight of the expensive, not to mention _fast_, cars that were parked there.

When they got out of the car, Sheik decided to play Mother Hen.

"Tet, could you do up your top button?"

"But it goes right up my neck. I won't be able to _breathe."_ They were still in school uniform because they had had to leave pretty much as soon as their school had finished in order to be in time for the interview.

"Here, put this on." Sheik had dragged up a black scarf from somewhere and he threw it to Tetra. "Dark, at least do up your shoelaces, man!" Dark did as told, muttering something nasty about his friend under his breath. "And Link, couldn't you have done anything about your hair? It's... scraggly and messy and terrible." Link's hair was tied as best as he could manage, with long blonde bangs hanging to the sides of his face. True, his hair wasn't as neat as Sheik's, whose seemed to be stupidly neat for perhaps the first and only time in his life. Sheik reached up to brush Link's hair back, but backed away with a roll of his eyes at Link's glare.

"Ready?" Sheik asked them all. Now it was the other three's turn to roll their eyes.

"Yes Mom," they replied caustically, before starting to walk towards the building in the direction which a sign pointed out was towards the Reception. At the desk, they informed the lady that they were here for Zelda Harkinian's appointment to see Vice Principal Parish.

"Umm, Zelda?" the lady asked, looking confusedly at them. She had known the girl, and her late father, last year and a few before that.

"With us in spirit," Dark assured her solemnly. The other three snickered and took a seat at the desk lady's indication.

Finally, after waiting for almost ten excruciating minutes, a tall figure came down the corridor and ushered them into his office. An apprehensive Link, Dark, Sheik and Tetra all sat on the edge of their offered seats, glancing between each other.

"Well, this is a curious situation," the Principal said, taking a seat across from them all. "I hear you are here in place of Miss Harkinian."

"Yes," Sheik started hesitantly. "She... couldn't make it today."

"Oh? Do explain."

"Well, you see sir, here's our situation," Tetra began.

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 18/12/10**

**Author's Note:**

Well, this was a quicker update than I, and I'm sure you, expected. I thoroughly hope that's a good thing!

Well I don't have much to say, except that I hope you liked the chapter.

I know, Link's a bit of a bastard. But people do stupid things... and also I really just needed a reason to laugh at him, and for Sheik to make him sleep in the garage. I've tried it, and trust me, not comfortable when the floor is uneven cement and there are possibly mice in there...

As you may have noticed, I've reverted to third person all of a sudden. Don't ask why, I just have. It's just easier sometimes, especially when one main character is depressed and the other is drunk.

So... R&R please!

Next update in a little over a week, most likely.

buddy w


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"So I guess she's not going all that well?" Vice Principal Parish mused. "I must admit, I was quite saddened by Daphnes death too. He and I had worked together for years..."

"Sir," Sheik interrupted impatiently. "What of Zelda?"

"As it said in the letter, the scholarship is hers. It has been set indefinitely at 30%."

"Is there any chance of that percentage going up, even a little?" Dark asked.

"I'll see what I can do." He paused. "Also, have you been checking up on her regularly? Just to, you know, make sure she's moving along, even if it's just a little at a time."

"Actually, she's been living with me," Link said. The Vice Principal's face immediately became disapproving, and link' backtracked quickly. "No, no, I mean, in my house."

"We all are," Tetra added helpfully.

After he had finished interrogating them – Link especially, after he found out that he had to make his own money – the four of them left his office, reasonably happy. Just as they left, the bell rang.

"They finish at four?" Sheik pondered.

"Zelda told me that some days they finish at 4, and others they finish at 3 to balance it out," Tetra replied. Students were flooding out of the classrooms, most making a run for it as they hoisted bags onto their backs and hurried towards the nearest exit.

On the way to the car park, a small group of girls came alongside them. A couple shot them flirtatious smiles, which Sheik and Dark were more than happy to reply to. Link might have too, if Tetra had not been walking just behind him. Rolling her eyes, Tetra grabbed both Sheik and Dark by their collars and just about dragged them the rest of the way to the car, shoving them inside before getting into the back herself.

"Boys," she muttered to herself. The other three snorted in unison at her not-so-silent comment and Sheik and Dark's eyes travelled back to the girl as they drove past.

(xxx)

As Dark, Tetra, Sheik and Link entered Link's house, with shopping bags in tow, they were met with a furious Zelda. She shook a piece of paper in their faces angrily.

"Who went and got my mail?" she asked. They all cowered a little beneath her rage.

"Uh, I did," Link admitted.

"And who _opened_ my mail?" Three fingers pointed to Link, who pointed at Dark. "Why? Why did you, after opening it, not inform me that I had an interview _three days ago_?" No one opened their mouth to answer. "Why didn't you at least tell me if you were going to cancel the interview?"

"We... didn't cancel it," Dark told her.

"Then what did you do?"

"We... went. On your behalf."

"... You? All of you?" Dark nodded in confirmation.

"You weren't in much of a state to go, so-"

"I studied for eight months for this, and then _you _went to my interview?"

"Look," Sheik said, brandishing a piece of paper in front of her face. She snatched it from his hand and began reading it, her eyes going wide. "We weren't compete failures."

"They offered me... 80% scholarship," she breathed, stunned. She walked over to a chair and just about collapsed into it, under the four enthusiastic gazes of her friends.

"What happened, Zel?" Link asked, putting a hand on her knee. "What did we do?"

"I don't want to go to this school anymore," Zelda yelled. "I don't. Want. To. Go." She tore the paper in half, and then in half again, until there was just little shreds on the carpet. Wiping away the one tear that had slipped onto her cheek, she ran upstairs.

Link found her a few minutes later, curled up in a corner, glaring at the book she held in her hands. Link sat down next to her and hugged her gently.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to go back there," she repeated, sniffing.

"Why not? After all that hard work..."

"But... you're not there. If I stay here, I still have you, and Tet and Sheik and Dark and..."

"It's not like we'll never see you again," Link assured her. "We all live, what, ten minutes away from you, tops. There's no way you could keep us away."

"It's not the same!"

"I know," Link sighed. "But I'm sure you'll make, and you probably still have, friends there."

"It... won't be the same."

"You'll do what you did before you met all of us," he shrugged. She punched his shoulder roughly and he winced.

"Do you want me to go?" she asked him brutally.

"Of course not, Zel," he told her quietly.

"The why are you insisting on this?"

"Because something tells me it's what your father would've wanted you to do. Because, deep down, I know you want to go back so you can ace the rest of your time at school, be top of the school at the end of high school and finish your education properly."

"What about you? Don't you want to finish your education properly?"

"Ah, don't worry about me. I've been a hopeless case from the beginning," Link joked. "I've been here all my life, and I'll be fine here." He paused and kissed her cheek. "Will you go to Hylia High next year?"

"I'll... think about it," Zelda decided, finally returning his hug.

(xxx)

Some buried deep instinct told him that this situation wasn't what it should've been. And this situation was going to get him hurt. He had already run around the school once, not like they made you do during a cross country run, but like they did in those spy movies. Creeping along behind walls, peeking around every corner, making mad dashes for the next wall when the first ended. Somehow, this way of circling the school was so much worse.

"Can't run forever," a Sports Academy boy sneered, sneaking up behind him. Link let out a yelp and went to run forward, but was blocked off by another big boy. He swore vehemently. These brutes had been chasing him for the better part of lunch time, and he hadn't even bothered to question why yet. Something was just warning him to run hell for leather, and think about it later.

One of the boys of the large group that had now gathered around him nicked him on the shoulder from behind. He spun around quickly and a swift punch was delivered into his stomach. He coughed and doubled over, and someone took the opportunity to strike another blow to his shoulder. He just managed to open his eyes as a fist was coming to his face. He dodged it as best he could, driving his shoulder into someone's gut. The boy groaned and fell to his knees, but it did not completely take him out.

(xxx)

Zelda meandered along behind her friends as they wandered towards the gym. Idly, she wandered where Link was. He had disappeared near the beginning of lunch.

There was a large crowd behind the gym, standing in a circle and gazing intently at something, someone occasionally cheering. As they approached the back of the group, someone turned around and informed them excitedly, "Punch on."

"Ugh. Sports Academy again," Tetra spat moodily. "Who's-"

"Link!" Zelda gasped. She pushed past though the group of people towards the boy she had grown to like so much. He was crouched on the ground, chest heaving, glaring daggers at the huge boys that had him surrounded. One of them went to pick Link up by his collar, another just about to send a fist flying into his face, when Zelda caught their attention.

"Oy!" she yelled. As he turned around, she threw a punch into his nose, making it crack. He clutched his nose and let Link tumble to the ground.

Ganondorf stepped forward and smirked, barely glancing at Zelda as she yelled at him, and even punched his iron arms a little. He kicked Link in the stomach, making him cough violently and his head to droop. Behind Ganondorf, Vaati followed, looking like he may just break into song at any moment.

"Stop them," she snarled, right in his face. Despite himself, he took a step backwards.

"Ah, Zelda, dear, how are you?"

"Cut the crap. I thought Link was your friend." Zelda shot another glance toward Link, then turned back to the midget. "_I thought he was your friend_!" As she raised a fist to slam into his face, but six hands held her back. She didn't need to turn to realise they belonged to her friends.

"Tell them to stop, or I swear, you'll get it," Sheik told the demon.

"Ha! Who are you, anyway? I don't even know your name, and your telling me to get them to stop? Who the hell do you think you are? I'd bet your mother-" Vaati didn't get to finish his sentence before Sheik had kicked him in the groin and Tetra and punched his face.

"Even think of insulting my mother again, and you'll..." Sheik turned around and was met with three burly chest blocking his way. "_Move_," he growled. Instead of doing as was asked of them, they seemed to take this as a signal to attack. The one on the left sent a kick to Sheik's shoulder, knocking him onto his back on the ground. Tetra shoved past and reduced one to the ground with a swift punch. Dark moved over to the other, doing his best to hurt them without getting hurt himself. It was harder than he thought it would be. All three of them cursed at once as a few more appeared out of the throng. Sheik hauled himself off the ground and rubbed his shoulder.

Zelda had left the side of her friends and rushed over to Link, who was sitting on the ground, surrounded closely by four Sports Academy boys. As she sunk to his side, her hands fluttered around him, afraid to touch anything lest it caused him more pain.

"Zelda," Link said through gritted teeth.

"What hurts?" she asked, both hands coming to rest gently on his shoulders.

"I... I'd be lying if I said nothing. It's probably closer to everything." He let out a loose chuckle and slowly tried to sit up. Zelda pushed him gently back down again. "Let me up, we need to get out of here." Link eased himself off the ground and, though he had thought not to, put most of his weight on Zelda. His foot painfully dragged along a little as Zelda tried to hurry him away.

With their backs turned, Zelda didn't notice Vaati point a few more of the Sports Academy boys in their direction. She herself was pulled backwards sharply as one of the boys grabbed onto Link's collar and dragged him back to the ground. Link had barely let out a breath before he was given a hard kick just below his chest. His next breath was laboured and hoarse.

"Stop stop stop!" Zelda pushed her way past them, getting no few kicks of her own, and kneeled back down to Link. She put one hand around his middle and another over his head, doing her best to keep the damage away from his head and ribs. She whipped her head around frantically, looking for her other friends. "Tet!"

"... Little busy here," Tetra snarled, blocking a punch and then elbowing one boy out of her way. He stumbled backwards and ended up falling on his rear. Another boy, who had just come hurtling towards Tetra, fell over the one on the ground. Tetra winced. Having something big on top of you _had _to be painful.

"Zel, on your left!" Dark called. Zelda turned to look in the direction he had yelled and instead received the toe of a shoe in her right side. She swore and shot Dark a dirty glance. "Your, uh, other left?" Then Dark disappeared from her view as a large body came in her way. She swore those legs were as thick as tree trunks. Zelda opened her mouth to call, yell, scream, do _something_, when suddenly he disappeared. They all did.

By the time Zelda got her basic orientation back, she realised that they had not actually retreated, they had simply regrouped.

"Who trained these guys," Dark wailed, as he, Sheik and Tetra made their careful way over to Link and Zelda, "the police?"

"What do we do now?" Zelda whispered, her eyes widening.

"... Running seems like a good idea, now," Sheik said in a disjointed voice.

"What about Link?"

"Bring him along. He could be helpful to hit things with," Tetra suggested, rolling her wrists and stretching her fingers. They all paused to look at the line, sorry, _wall, _of Sports Academy thugs.

"It's another fifty each if you can knock 'em all out," Vaati proposed. There was a rumble through the wall.

"What do you want, Vaati?" Zelda called desperately.

"You. To _disappear_."

"We can do th-" Sheik elbowed Dark in the ribs. The guy was no coward, but one of his eyes was puffy and closing. A stray thought ran through Zelda's head, reminding her to tell him that he had a reason to wear an eye patch now.

"And you're paying these guys just to get rid of me?" Zelda let out a mirthless laugh. "You're really quite desperate, aren't you? And not only that, do you really think he'll still be your friend now, after what you've just done?"

"No." Vaati looked down at his fingernails. "But I've come to realise now much money and power can work hand in hand."

"_So why don't you stop?" _

Vaati shrugged. "I guess I'm enjoying myself."

"... I'll show you 'enjoying myself', you- _GAHH!" _Zelda had just begun to stand up and move towards the little punk when Ganondorf moved behind her and grabbed her hair in a huge fist and jerked her head backwards. Somehow the fight had moved closer and closer to the bike enclosure. Link stirred with a few coughs as Ganondorf picked Zelda up, one hand still tight in her hair, and then threw her to the ground. She mustered up enough strength to roll as she hit the pavement, saving herself from a potentially broken hip. Her throat was too hoarse to scream as she wanted to.

Ganondorf lunged at her again, and her head was still spinning too dangerously for her to be able to scramble out of the way. She clawed at his face, snarling as best she could, but Ganondorf gleefully threw her to the ground again. This time, she landed hard on an elbow and whimpered as it jarred. There was a gash along her forehead from a bit of stray wire. Her eyes fluttered, but all she could see were stars. Ganondorf gave a laugh and kicked her in the side. As he raised his foot again, a hand clamped onto his shoulder.

"_Don't you dare,_" Link said, his eyes glittering furiously though he stood bent over, putting much of his weight on Ganondorf's shoulder.

"What are you go-"In response to the question Link had known was coming, he kicked Ganondorf in the groin. Hard. He sunk to the ground, his eyes crossed for a moment. Link half sat, half fell next to Zelda, quickly moving the wire that was close to her head.

"Hey, Zel," he said quietly. "Can you he-"

"What is going on here?" All heads turned to the Principal of East Hyrule High, who stood outside her office, megaphone in hand and with an incredibly dangerous expression on her face. Nobody said a word to answer her question. Her hand trembled with fury for a moment before she continued. "Could all the Sports Academy who are standing there trying to look innocent, and even the ones who aren't even trying, please report to my office _immediately_." It wasn't a question. "And the rest of you..." She cast her eyes around at an unconscious Zelda, a very nearly unconscious Link, a very exhausted Dark and Sheik who were practically holding each other up and a very cross looking Tetra who seemed to be favouring one leg. "The rest of you just... Go."

A large group of sullen boys, all wearing the blue striped uniform, traipsed slowly up to the Principal's office. Two of them hauled Ganondorf to his feet and started dragging him up too. One of them had Vaati thrown over his shoulder. The captain goes down with his ship.

Sheik caught a glance of Kafei, slowly meandering away around the gym.

"Zel, if you can hear me, squeeze my fingers," Dark instructed. He felt a slight squeeze and he permitted himself a small smile. Tetra and Sheik were easing Link into a proper sitting position whilst trying not to do any more damage. "If you can feel your entire body, squeeze again." Dark felt another squeeze and was incredibly thankful. Nothing wrong with the spine, then.

"... And it hurts," Zelda wailed quietly, her eyes opening slowly.

"Think you can stand up?" When she nodded, both Sheik and Dark helped her to her feet carefully, ignoring the teacher behind them, who was insisting that they go to the nurses office. Zelda suddenly clutched at her head frightfully, then listed over to one side and threw up. Dark recoiled a little from the mess on the pavement when he realised that she had thrown up blood.

"Nurses office?" Dark asked Sheik, who snorted disdainfully.

"They don't do anything except put a bandaid on your head and then call a real doctor. Let's get them home." Sheik lifted Zelda into his arms as gently as possible. Her head lolled into his shoulder. Dark and Tetra slowly helped Link to his feet. Link groaned, but started walking cautiously, leaning on the both of them.

"I think I broke everything," he moaned.

"Not everything," Tetra said as brightly as she could manage. "Perhaps just half of everything."

Tetra and Dark helped Link into the front seat of the car, where he sat with a huff. The small twenty metres walk had caused him to break out into a sweat and bruises were already blossoming over his body. Sheik lay Zelda down in the backseat, he head in Tetra's lap.

At Link's house, they lay Link down on the couch, surrounded by as many cushions as they could find in a hurry. They put Zelda on the ground, on top of three sleeping bags and with one on top of her.

"Who you calling?" Tetra asked Sheik as he brought the phone up to his ear.

"Dr Waren. My uncle. He's a great guy and even better doctor."

Dark poured himself a glass of water and handed Tetra another, who took it gratefully. Both of them chugged the water down quickly. Tetra growled something to herself as her hand moved to her head, where there was a large cut on her cheek. The blood was already congealing around it, and a colourful bruise was forming.

"Woah, what happened there?" Dark asked, looking at the cut closely.

"I got thrown against a rock," Tetra muttered. "A particularly large, hard, football boot shaped rock."

"Waren's going to be here in fifteen minutes," Sheik called, coming back into the room from the corridor. "I am so lucky that that guy likes me. It was his day off and I think he was asleep when I called..."

"I'll be upstairs, collapsed on the first bed I find, if anyone needs me," Tetra said, heading up the stairs wearily.

Sheik and Dark regarded each other. "Reckon we should go and try to convince her to dress that cheek?" Dark asked.

"... Yeah," Sheik replied caustically. "Because I really need to have my ass kicked _again_."

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 27/01/2011**

**Author's Notes:**

Hi there.

Well, there we go. Chapter 12. I hope you liked it, I really do. Well, this chapter (the part in the school) was actually the first bit I thought of when I started this fic. I'm so glad to finally get it down. Though I have to admit, it hasn't really turned out as epic as I'd have liked it. Things are always so much more epic in your head...

Again, I hope you liked it. Read and review, and a HUGE thank you to everybody who has read and even more reviewed in the past. Keep up the good habit!

That's all for now!

buddy w


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"... school. Ah well. I really needed a break anyways."

"Yeah me too. Besides even if we did go, it'd be a pain in the arse with Vaati up our necks."

There was a pause.

"Ugh... Vaati..."

"Oh, how I hope he got expelled."

"Somehow I doubt it. Some of the Sports Academy might've though."

"Well that makes the next couple of years look a little brighter."

It felt like there was a heavy fog hanging around his head. It must've entered his ears, Link was sure. But his ears seemed like the only thing he had control over at the moment, for his head wouldn't move and his eyes refused to open. So he gave in and listened.

The voice stopped for a moment as a door nearby creaked open.

"Hey Zel," someone greeted. It was followed by a yawn. Link belatedly recognised the voice as Dark's.

"You shouldn't be out of bed, Zel," the other berated.

"I know, Sheik," Zelda replied hoarsely. "But I wanted to see how he's doing."

"Oh, just fine, considering his ribs still aren't in one complete piece, his fever is still raging and I haven't even seen him move yet," Sheik informed her. "So I think you just wander back downstairs again."

"Aw, c'mon, Sheik. I've been lying on the couch all day and I'm dead bored."

"Bored," Dark scoffed. "You've been asleep most of the day!"

"Whatever."

"Zelda, you're going back downstairs," Sheik decided firmly.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"I'm not even sick!"

"A concussion _is _sick."

"That didn't even make sense. And besides, it was pretty mild."

"I honestly don't care. Go back downstairs and sleep. Or read a book or something!" he added to stop another argument.

"... I'm staying." Link felt a weight drop down on the side of the bed he was lying on. Something smooth touched his fingers, and then his hand was wrapped in them.

"He's going to be out for a little while still," Dark said with a sigh. "The meds the doctor gave him, and the ones we've been force feeding him have a side effect of drowsiness. Pretty determined drowsiness, by the looks of it."

"That's okay," Zelda murmured.

The voices shifted into oblivion, getting blurry at an alarming speed. Once again, Link tried, and failed, to move something, anything. The voices faded out of his mind completely and he only had a seconds warning before his senses shut down.

(xxx)

Zelda sighed deeply in her sleep. Though the chair she was slumped in wasn't very comfortable, she had wriggled and adjusted until she had managed to get into a half comfortable position, and her neck wasn't cricked at a funny angle. Tetra turned over on the ground, where she was asleep curled underneath a blanket.

From the bed came an incomprehensible mumbling.

Zelda jerked violently out of sleep, part tumbling out of the chair. She glanced around the dark room for the source of the noise, but it was quiet once again. On the bed, Link's dishevelled hair, looking golden in the dark, hid part of his face. His mouth was set in a tight line. Zelda reached out and took his hand, patting it a couple times. After a moment, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

The silence continued for another minutes or so, until a hoarse coughing filled the air. When it stopped, Zelda sighed deeply.

"... Zelda?"

"Mmm..." she replied absently, still numb with sleep.

"Zelda?" came the rough voice again. A few violent coughs followed. Zelda opened her eyes and stared back into a pair of azure orbs. For a moment, her voice wouldn't come to her.

"Link!" she exclaimed. She moved to the bed and wrapped her arms around him tightly, not even noticing his slight wince. She kissed him on the lips several times. "I've been so worried! I'm... sorry. I'm so sorry." Link's hands found her shoulders and pulled her a little closer, locking them in a passionate kiss. The pain he had felt a moment ago was a distant memory.

"Sorry for what, Zel?" he asked hoarsely.

"I..." She kissed him again, because she couldn't think of an answer. A small cough made both their heads turn.

"Hey Tet," Link greeted. Zelda blushed just a little.

"Good morning to you too, sleeping beauty," she replied. "I'm gonna... go sleep downstairs. I... yeah." Link flashed here a thankful smile as she wrapped herself in the blanket and made her way out of the room, looking a bit like a giant slug.

"Sorry for what?" Link asked Zelda again after a moment. She looked down.

"How are your ribs?" she asked suddenly.

"My ribs?" He gently prodded his chest with a finger, wincing a little. "Honestly, they were a lot better before you mentioned them."

"Sorry," Zelda chuckled. Link yawned, despite giving his best effort not to. "Tired?"

"A little," he admitted. "Though I guess I shouldn't be after... How long was I out for?"

"Almost a couple days. But I think sleeping is the best thing for you."

"Maybe you should give it a thought, too," Link suggested, running a thumb over her cheek. "Your eyes are all red." He pulled her closer again, and Zelda deftly curled over him, landing on the other side of the bed. She lay close to him, her head in the hollow of his throat. Link sighed and kissed the top of her head.

"I'm glad to have you back," Zelda murmured quietly, also glad that he dropped the earlier topic so quickly.

"Me? I never went anywhere. I'm the one who's glad to have you back," Link said. He yawned, and almost immediately his breathing slowed to the rhythm of sleep.

"... 'm sorry," Zelda mumbled again, drifting off.

(xxx) (1st person) (xxx)

I stirred slowly, my head resting on something warm. A hand ran along my hair, from the top of my head right down the tip in the middle of my back. I made a noise in my throat.

"Morning," Link whispered. His hand touched my face for a moment, then went back to playing with my hair.

"Morning," I replied, smiling sleepily as I forced my eyes open. "I don't think I've slept that well for weeks."

"I haven't seen you smile for that long either." He brushed a finger over my lips. "I've missed it." He pressed his lips to my still smiling ones for a moment, then pulled away when his stomach growled. I laughed and rolled off my side of the bed.

"I'll bring you some breakfast," I told him.

"Breakfast sounds good," he agreed, slowly moving his legs so they hung over the edge of the bed. "But I can get it myself." He heaved himself up, flinching slightly as he listed forward. I seriously considered pushing him back onto the bed, but I figured that, even in the state he was in, I had basically no chance of succeeding with that.

He walked across the room stiffly but steadily, grabbing my hand partly to help him keep his balance as he got to the door. Manoeuvring down the stairs wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, and I we were met with Sheik, Dark and Tetra playing cards on the table.

"Well, look who it is! The noble Hero," Dark joked, looking at Link with his one eye. The other was covered with an eye patch. "Glad you could join us, oh great one." He and Sheik both stood and gave Link a mock bow. Link's eye twitched for a moment.

"Do that one more time," Link requested suspiciously.

"What, this?" Dark asked, bowing again.

"Yeah, _that_." Link calmly raised a leg and kicked Dark in the stomach, winding his distant cousin and receiving a glare from where Dark was on the ground. Link grinned after a moment and offered a hand to Dark, who took it readily.

"I will get you for that," Dark attested, cocking an eyebrow.

"What're you gonna' do, fight an injured man?" Link taunted, raising his fists up to his chest. Both were wearing identical grins. In a moment, Dark clapped his cousin on the shoulder and assured him sombrely, "Not today."

"So, how's everyone else going? Or was I the only one who got the crap beat out of me?" Link asked, gingerly sitting down as I handed him a plate of toast and a mug of coffee, placing a little green pill next to it.

"You got it the worst," Sheik told him. "But most of us have got some pretty impressive bruises to show for it. Zelda's got a scar on her forehead too, in case you didn't notice."

"I did notice," Link added in my direction, raising a piece of toast to his mouth. He glanced at Dark. "Is that thing just for show, or...?"

"No, it's actually there for a reason!" Dark lifted the eye patch and showed Link the bruise that had formed around his eye. "I bet you're jealous, right?"

"Sure," Link agreed around a mouthful of toast. "Say," he started slowly after swallowing. "Why aren't you at school? It's Wednesday, right?"

"Uh... we had to take care of you and Zel!" Tetra said hopefully.

"_Sure_, because I'm _completely_ helpless and not able to do _anything_ for myself," I muttered, chewing moodily on my slightly blackened piece of bread.

"I can't believe you're using me as an excuse to miss school!" Link exclaimed. "Now what do I say? 'I was at home taking care of my friends, who were taking care of me'? So many people can't use the same excuse, it loses its validation," he finished grumpily.

"Because you'd know _everything_ about excuses to miss school..." I suggested grimly. Link blushed just a little.

"Say, uh, where are Aryll and Midna?" he changed the topic swiftly. "I hope at least you made them g-"

"We're right here, you idiot," Aryll said, punching Link in the arm. "And you just _had _to go and get yourself beat up like that, didn't you? Did you think about running? Of course you didn't, because that brain of yours probably doesn't even work!" She paused on her rant for a moment. "_You didn't hit them first, did you?"_

"No, no!" Link objected, rubbing the spot where his little sister had punched him several times. "It wasn't my fault, I _swear_."

"Sure..." She gave him a look which told him pretty quickly that she thought he was stupid.

"Hey, don't give me that look!" He grabbed her around the waist and started tickling her, reducing her to hysterics on the floor.

(xxx)

"Hey, look who it is," Vaati said loudly as soon Link, Tetra and I walked through the door. "What's it feel like, coming back from the dead?"

"Hi to you too," Link muttered, shooting an icy glare at his former friends.

"Feeling better, Link?" Kafei asked with a sneer.

"Shut up," Link growled. I could see his muscles tense and his hands clench under the table. I patted his knee as calmly as I could.

"Well, now that we have our three _star students_ back," I choked on a laugh, but Mr A continued. "Shall we get back to math?" He turned to the board, drew two axes and turned back to the class. "So. Graphs. Who can tell me what they about graphs?"

"They're squiggly lines that can't get their point across?" I muttered, a bit too loud.

"I'm sure not everyone shares that point of view," the teacher said grumpily. "Now, does anyone have a proper explanation?"

"I don't think I'd miss anything if I drifted off this lesson," Link sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Oh no. You have to listen," I said, poking him hard in the shoulder. "While _I _drift off."

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"But you're the one about to fail this subject, remember?" I leaned back in my chair, slightly amused by how Link grabbed a pen and began scribbling down whatever the teacher had drawn on the board. I half-listened to the complicated explanations on this theory or another, several of which he left unfinished or incorrect.

"Miss Harkinian, have you been listening?" Mr A bellowed suddenly. I sat up quickly.

"Of course, sir. You were talking about how you could find the turning point on a parabola without actually working anything out." I think. I was relieved when he nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing.

"Alright, well, since you seem to think it's so easy, why don't you show the class exactly what the turning point of this graph is?" He wrote an equation on the board, and I rolled my eyes. Too easy. I walked up to the board and wrote up an explanation.

Perhaps I shouldn't have rolled my eyes when I turned back to the teacher. I swear a vein started throbbing in his forehead.

"Miss Harkinian, you have just earned a detention with me this afternoon." Well, someone's in a bad mood today. He went on, "I am sure you'll be able to make it, as I have heard you have no parent anymore." My hand clenched and I walked back to my desk, picked up my pile of books and walked to the door. Link had stood up and went to put a hand on my arm, but I brushed him off.

"Enjoy the rest of the class," I muttered as I walked out of the room.

At my locker, I heard someone approach with heavy footsteps.

"Miss _Harkinian_," he spoke my name with venom. "Neither you nor anyone else has the right to walk out of my class like that."

"And neither you nor anyone else has the right to insult either of my parents. _Never_ speak ill of the dead, sir." I continued putting my books away.

"You are to come back to class, immediately, or any hope you might have had about a scholarship will be gone."

"Threatening a student can get you fired," I reminded him. If he didn't stop with the taunting and threatening now, I swear...

"And skipping both class and a detention can get you expelled." His hand grabbed a bunch of my dress collar and his glare grew frighteningly furious.

"Let _go _of me." I pulled my dress from his fist, locked my lock and stalked away. My feet brought me to the back of the gym, where I had sat down without fully realising it. Looking down, I realised I was holding a book in my hands. It didn't strike me until that moment that my unconscious mind probably knew me better than my conscious one.

In a few minutes, I heard two people approaching. It didn't take a genius to figure out who they were.

"You... alright?" Tetra asked slowly, sitting next to me.

"I'm fine." And I was. Sure, the jibe had hurt; it was like poking a still very tender wound. But it hadn't meant all that much coming from him. "Shouldn't you two still be in class?"

"There's no point now. Teacher came into the classroom, filled up that little trolley with all his stuff and left. Figured I wasn't going to learn much math just sitting there like a vegetable, so..." Link lay down with his head on my legs and smirked when I snorted at his explanation. "I seriously think you damaged his ego with whatever you said to him outside."

"Thank Farore I did. And what do you think text books are for, sleeping on? They're meant to teach you the stuff when a teacher can't or won't."

"Yeah, yeah..."

"... You generally have to open them to read them," I pointed out, as he simply continued to lie there.

"You teach me."

"What?"

"Fill me in on whatever I have to know to pass this test," he insisted.

I gasped mockingly. "But what about your reputation? Won't it be completely ruined if you actually did well in math?"

"Shut up," he growled as Tetra laughed. "And start teaching."

(xxx)

The door creaked as it opened and I winced. I had been staying in this house for a few weeks now, and I had never noticed this room even existed until now. It ashamed me to realise in how much of a haze I had been living in. Mourn the dead, definitely, but I hadn't thought to cherish what I still had with me. Mourn the dead, but never forget the living.

The room was filled with weapons. Swords, to be exact. Some were long, thin fencing swords that hung from the wall. There were several sabres, lined up horizontally on the wall. Many polished boxes lay in piles along the wall. In one corner, a glass cabinet held a long broadsword. Its hilt was a light blue that almost seemed to glow in the subdued light of the room. The guard looked as if it were a pair of wings; blue and elegant to go with the double edged weapon.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

"Sure is," I agreed. I turned to Link. "Is it yours?"

"Well, yeah, I guess it is. My father left it and all the others in this room in his will for us. I... guess he liked swords?"

"Looks like it," I chuckled.

"You know, you never told me what the sorry was for," Link said, coming to stand behind me. His arms wrapped around my waist.

"... What?"

"When I woke up a couple days ago, the first thing you said was that you were sorry. You never told me why you were sorry."

"Oh."

"So?"

"I'm sorry that you got smashed up. I'm sorry you had to go through that much pain. I'm sorry because I realise it was because of me." I leaned back into him and closed my eyes.

"Don't be sorry," he whispered. "Because I'm not."

(xxx)

"Sit down, Zel," Dark insisted. "I swear, I'll cry if you leave before dinner. Sheik and I made it, you know!" Midna had sat down next to me at the mention of 'dinner'. I guess there was no leaving now.

"You did tell Link that you cooked, right?" I confirmed.

"Sure, sure."

"... What happened to my kitchen?"

"Oops," Dark said, running into the kitchen to placate his cousin.

I don't know how the rest of them managed to eat whilst they were all casting furtive glances around at each other. Truly, it was amazing the food didn't miss their mouths while they kept turning their faces.

"Alright, what is it that you're all dying to say?" I finally asked. There was a collective sigh around the table and Sheik handed me a piece of paper.

"Please?" they all said in unison. I read the paper, then slowly looked up to meet their eyes one by one.

"I swear I ripped this up the last time you gave this to me."

"You did. I guess we're lucky that Hylia High sent two copies," Sheik replied quietly.

"My answer hasn't changed. I'm not going." I stood up and dropped the paper offer on the table. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I walked to the door and opened it. "Midna, if you're not here in three seconds, I'm leaving without you."

"Hey, Zel," Link said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I turned slowly. "You promised me you'd think about it."

"I did. The answer didn't change."

"Then... let me drive you. You guys can't walk."

"Of course we can." I was about to take a step out the door when his hand moved to my wrist and tightened.

"At least listen to us, Zelda. You spent all that time preparing, studying, and you won. You won this chance, and you can't just throw it away. Your father wouldn't have wanted you to do that."

"You have no idea what he would've wanted," I hissed furiously, shaking my head.

"I do!" he assured me. "He always wanted the best for you, and this is what's best. You can't let all that time, both your and his go to waste! He put in so much effort-"

"But he's dead! _Dead_, Link. It doesn't matter what he would've wanted to happen, what he would've told me, because he's not here anymore." I pulled hard against him, but his hand tightened around my wrist even more. I wiped away the tears that had sneaked out of my eyes. "You're hurting me!"

"You won't even listen, I-"

"You're _hurting_ me, Link!" I yanked my hand out of his grasp and left his house. As I walked, I heard Midna's frantic footsteps catching up to mine.

(xxx)

"Tetra called for you again," Midna said.

"Mm hmm."

"And so did Sheik and Dark and Link."

"Mm hmm."

"Do you... want to talk to one of them? I could call them back..."

"No."

"Tetra said that Link wanted to apologise." I didn't say anything and she went on. "Link... Link said he was sorry." Again, I didn't answer. "Are you going to forgive him?"

"Forgive him?" I laughed mirthlessly. "I forgave him as soon as we turned the corner that night."

"Then why are you hiding? Why aren't you talking to any of them? You skipped school yesterday, it's almost midday now and you still haven't moved today."

"I haven't been hiding. I just... need some time to think. It's too hard to do that at school."

"I have... one request," Midna said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Accept Hylia High's scholarship offer." She strode off then, down the stairs and into the next room.

I lay there, trying to think of a reason I should decline. I had been thinking for a while now, and I still couldn't come up with anything better than 'just because'.

_Ah, dad, why did you have to leave us? And why do my friends have to care about me so damned much?_

I swear I could almost hear his breezy voice, filled with mirth and reason. _Just because._

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 28/01/11**

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello to everyone who is reading this! Let me start with, sorry. This chapter took me way to long, I know. **

**Yay, for the ZeLink fluff. I just couldn't help myself. **

**I was going to give you a proper answer to her decision in this chapter, but... yeah. I didn't get around to it. **

**We're almost done with this. I have another... probably three chapters left. **

**Hope you guys liked this chapter, and keep a heads up for the next one. I guarantee it'll be faster than this one. **

**Read and review, as always!**

**Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and I hope you guys all have a good start to the New Year. Mostly, I'll be back after that!**

**buddy w**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I was just a little nervous as I walked to the staff room. Alright, maybe more than just a little. And perhaps part of that nervousness was caused by the fact that I had been called to the school on a Saturday afternoon. The butterflies in my stomach were a little diminished as Tetra stuck her head out of the room and called me in quickly.

"How many other people are here?" I asked quietly, ducking into the room.

"See for yourself." I gave Sheik and Dark smiles in return to theirs, but my eyes stuck to Link. He stood behind the other two, glaring at the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. On the other side of the room, standing near the wall opposite the one Link was staring at, were Vaati, Kafei, Ganondorf and a couple other Sports Academy boys. The Principal stood at the head of the room, calmly sipping her coffee.

"Phones away." There was a quiet groan as all those in the other side of the room pocketed their phones. I slowly approached Link, not even sure he knew I was there, and put my hand on his back. He turned around sharply, his eyes wide, but he smiled when I met his eyes and wrapped my hand in his. He opened his mouth and I silence him with a finger.

"_I'm_ sorry, and you're forgiven," I told him.

"Thanks," he replied, obviously relieved. He kissed my hand.

"I hear that there is some sort of... disagreement, between you two groups," the Principal said loudly, slamming her cup down on a table. The coffee sloshed around. "Anyone want to tell me exactly what they're about?" Silence. Everyone was looking at their shoes. The room stayed quiet while she started drilling us with questions. "Listen, if no one is going to tell me exactly what this is about, I'm going to have to draw my own conclusions."

"It's not that important," Vaati tried hopefully.

"'It's not that important', ha!" she snorted. "Let me tell you that your 'nothing important' rendered two of my students unconscious and several others quite severely injured. Are none of you going to give me an answer?" Again, silence. "Fine. You five," she pointed to Sheik, Dark, Tetra, Link and I, "are free to go, but I will be seeing you all in detention for all of next week." We made our way out of the classroom, not saying a word until we were all outside. As the door closed behind us, the five of us, ducked down and all jostled for a place to put our ears to the wall.

"-Frankly, I think this has truly got to end. Which is why these lovely papers are coming to you three," there was a loud groan and some spluttering objections from inside the staff room. "Let me assure you that your parents had just as hard a time trying to figure out why you were being expelled," we all mouthed the word 'expelled' together, "from our specialty sports program.

"And you other two," Vaati and Kafei, "are being suspended for all of next week. Any other funny business from you and I'll be sure to personally hand you certificates that look exactly like the ones that those three are holding."

We walked away from the staff room, each of our day's considerably brightened.

"I'll see you guys later." I kissed Link on the cheek and gave the others a wave as I headed to the gate. Dark pulled up next up to me on his motorbike.

"Hey, Zel, Link and Sheik are coming to my place tonight. Wanna' come?" he asked.

"Sure." After all, if I tried to hide away from them for much longer, I would eventually be dragged from my house and thrown into the nearest body of water in order to get some sense knocked into me.

"Awesome. Link said he'd pick you up around six."

"Right. See you later." He revved his bike, flicked the visor of his helmet down and rode off down the road.

Entering my house, I was met with the frightful smell of something cooking.

"... Midna?" I called hesitantly, closing the door behind me.

"Yeah?" She appeared at the other end of the corridor, a carrot in one hand and a knife in the end.

"What are you doing?"

"Cooking lunch."

"Ah. And what, exactly, possessed you to do such a thing?"

"I was hungry and there was nothing to eat. I didn't know when you'd get back, so I just did it myself."

"Okay. And what did you do?"

"I made pasta!"

"Mm hmm." Indeed, there was some in the boiling on the stove.

"Alright, well, I'm going upstairs. Call me when lunch is ready." I turned around when I was halfway up the stairs and called back down, "Oh, I'm going to Dark's house tonight. Will you be alright alone?" Her answer was a little muffled by the sound of crackling in a hot pan, but it sounded affirmative enough.

(xxx)

"Hey Zel! Link is here!" Midna called from downstairs. I mumbled in my sleep. Crap, when had I fallen asleep? "Zelda!"

My bedroom door creaked open after a minute, and a hand ran through my hair. I groaned into my pillow. "Wake up, Zelda."

"Ugh." I dragged myself out from underneath my blanket and put my chin on Link's knee, blinking sleepily.

"What made you so tired anyway? It's a Saturday," he said. He put his hand on my pillow, moved it away quickly, then slowly lifted the pillow up, peering under it suspiciously. He gingerly pulled out a couple of heavy volumes, letting them go as if they may be infected. "Why are you studying this stuff? Biology... Math Methods... You're already pretty much a year ahead."

"Yeah, well I won't be next year." I yawned widely. "I need to keep up with all those smart asses as Hylia High, don't I?"

"Does that... I... You're going?" he stammered hopefully.

"I guess so."

"Yes!" he whooped, and ducked down to plant a kiss on my mouth. "I have no idea what I did right, but I'm so glad it was."

"Maybe going out and getting drunk for one night did you good," I suggested dryly, cocking an eyebrow. His entire face flushed red so quickly I had an urge to laugh.

"Who... who told you about that?" he said in an incredibly restrained voice. He had covered his face with my pillow, probably to cover up the lingering redness.

"Kind of slipped out of Dark's mouth," I mentioned innocently, shrugged. Link mumbled something into the pillow along the lines of 'I'm going to _kill _him'.

"... I'm sorry," he finally muttered, still avoiding my eyes. I smiled a little.

"I forgive you." I tweaked his nose. "But if you ever drink again while you're still underage, and I get wind of it, I will throw you out of the nearest window and set both Tetra and Dark on you."

"O... okay." He laughed. Once. Very nervously. "Should we... go?"

"Yeah, just... let me put these away." I wandered in a circle around my room, once, and once again, and ended up just putting the two texts back on my bed. "I need to buy a new bookshelf," I sighed. "Let's go."

"When are you going to be back?" Midna asked from over the top of a book. Just that she was reading at all was a sign that she was really bored. I gave her a sympathetic look.

"Late," Link answered for me.

"I have my phone with me; call if you need anything," I called as he practically pushed me out the door.

Link looked so happy as he handed me a helmet and sat down on his bike, I almost expected him to skip all the way to Dark's house. As it was, I sat down behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I had to admit as he drove down the main road; Link was a pretty good driver.

After fifteen minutes or so, Link took a sharp turn under some overhanging trees and came upon a wide driveway. We climbed off the bike at the end of the road and, putting our helmets under our arms, started walking towards the gate that was perhaps fifty metres away. I looked with interest at the paddocks that stretched out on either side of the path and into the distance.

"Dark has horses? I didn't know that." He had never mentioned them before.

"Yeah, he's had them for years. He gave up riding recently, though, because none of the horses liked him enough for him to stay on their back for more than about a minute," Link explained. I caught a glimpse of something from the corner of my eye.

"I think we're about to be ambushed," I said to Link, just before it happened. Sheik and Dark jumped over the fence and bounded towards us, grinning manically. Unfortunately, by this time in the year, I was more than accustomed to that look.

I hid behind Link, who realised what was happening a little late but still attempted to hide behind his motorcycle.

"Too late. You're dead," Dark said, tapping Link on the head with the flat side of the sword.

"I wasn't ready!" Link complained. Dark replied with a mutter, and Link tackled him to the ground, the sword forgotten on the ground.

"Hey Zel," Sheik said.

"Hi," I replied. "I'd love to talk to you and everything, but it's a little hard with you pointing that at me."

"Oh, right." He put the point of the sword into the dirt near his feet. I stood up straight and smiled. Link and Dark were talking animatedly to each other, both covered in dirt and slowly standing up.

"Sheik," Dark called, grinning, "Looks like we're gonna' need those ropes."

"Ha!" Sheik turned to me jubilantly. "So you finally decided to go to Hylia High?"

"Yeah." I couldn't figure out what the topics of ropes and my changing school had in common.

"I'm not gonna bother to ask why, just in case you start to question your logic," he informed me. "So, congratulations."

"Thanks," I laughed. Dark led us into the house, which I quickly discovered was much bigger from the inside than it looked from the outside, and then we were steered back outside again. With the sun still poking out from behind the clouds, it was deliciously warm outside.

I leant against an apple tree as Dark mentioned something to Link, making them both laugh. Sheik was squatting next to the cucco coup, just looking at the three birds inside. Looking up, I plucked one of the tiny little red apples from the tree, ran my finger over it, and then took a bite. Which I promptly spat out again. The little apple was sour as anything. I coughed once, and then wheezed painfully. Dark and Sheik had already looped my stomach with a rope twice and then pulled it tighter.

"Hey! What are you doing? You're..." They were tying me up. To an apple tree. "You're trying me to an apple tree!"

"Exactly." Dark relished the word. They wrapped the rope around my waist twice more, this time catching my hands, hard as I tried to move them away, and keeping them bound to my side. As Sheik tied my knees and then my ankles, I wriggled enough for the rope around my torso to loosen a little bit, just enough for me to yank my arms out. I got ready to strangle one of them, whichever was closer, but Dark suddenly caught my wrists, picked up another rope and tied them so tightly that I couldn't move them apart at all.

"Believe it or –_Ow! – _not, tying – _Holy crap, Dark, OW! – _your guests to a – _ow, Sheik, ow ow ow OW – _goddamned apple tree isn't polite!" I turned my attention to Link, who was doing something useless. "Aren't you going to help me?" I wailed.

He sighed. "Are you guys going to let my girlfriend go, or am I going to have to fight you for her?"

"Try me," Sheik urged, grinning. Link shrugged and then threw a mock punch at him. Sheik ducked and pushed him onto the ground, then proceeded to climb up the tree, over my head, and tie me just under my arms. It was smart wearing a shirt with sleeves.

"Link, that was a crappy shot," I told him.

"I apologise. Maybe I should try something different-" Just as he was about to jump at Dark, whose back was turned to him, Sheik leapt out of the tree and on top of Link, knocking them both into the little dam. Dark laughed as Sheik climbed onto the bank, dripping wet but looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Now, to tie these knots..." Sheik muttered to himself, fiddling with the ropes that they had already partially secured. Link resurfaced with a gasp.

"Enjoying yourself in there?" I asked him caustically.

"Actually, the water is quite nice," he replied, floating on his back. "I might just stay in here for a little longer.

"Wonderful!"

Dark and Sheik sat down on the grass in front of me after they had tied and retied all the ropes. They looked up and smiled sweetly at me.

"If I could move right now, I'd kick you both."

"In that case, I feel it is very beneficial to us that you can't do either at the moment," Sheik noted. Oh, how I hoped they'd get bored of this soon. Sheik moved and knelt beside the cuccos, cooing softly to them.

"Aw, hello. Are you hungry there, beautiful? Of course you are, because Dark can't feed you nearly enough. Oh, hello you! You're looking slightly different from last time. Have you lost weight? I love what you've done to your hair," he murmured, running his hand through his own shoulder length blonde locks. "You know, maybe you could give Dark some advice about his hair. I seriously think it'd do him some good. You know once, he came to school with it tied up and all girly like. I have a feeling your owner is going crazy, but don't tell him that. He might not feed you for a while, and I don't think that'd do you any good. Say, would you like a worm? Here you go, I found one right here. Look, it's a big juicy, wriggling worm!"

I was almost completely certain that Sheik had gone completely crazy by this point. I shared a look with Link, who was still paddling in the water, and found that he agreed with my conclusion. Dark was nowhere to be seen just as his mother came walking up the hill towards us.

"Hey kids!" she greeted, wiping her hands on her pants.

"Hi!" Link and Sheik replied.

"How're you going Link? I haven't seen you around here for a while. I remember last year you were over three times a week for dinner," she laughed.

"Yeah, well, Aryll's decided that cooking isn't so bad, so I only have breakfast duty now. Eggs and toast, I can do." They laughed, and then Dark's mother turned to me.

"You must be Zelda," she said.

"Yeah. I'd shake your hand right now, but I'm kind of tied to a tree."

"I can see that," she laughed. Oh, but she wouldn't even think of perhaps _untying_ me. "I'm getting fish and chips for dinner by the way. Any objections?"

"Nope," we chorused.

"Great. Oh, and Sheik, the black cucco over there prefers beetles." She walked towards the house. Just as Sheik went back to conversing with the fowls, Dark appeared from behind the shed, his arms full.

"... What are they?" I asked him as he let them fall to the ground near me.

"Tools." He picked up a tomahawk – why on earth did he have a tomahawk? – from beside the drill and the crowbar and took a swing at me. It dug into the wood of the tree just a couple inches from where my neck had been a moment earlier. In the next few times that he took a swing at me, I was pretty convinced that he wasn't actually trying to hit me. Nonetheless, it was no less scary.

I didn't even have a chance to relax for a moment when he put down the tomahawk and picked up the drill, flicking it on and making it whir. I gulped. I hated that sound.

"Hey Dark, stop!" My voice was a little too high.

"No," he decided with a grin. Apparently, he was having fun. He touched the end of the drill with the top of his finger. "Have you ever turned it on against your skin?"

"Ugh, no. I'm not suicidal."

"I think you should try it then." He put the tip of the drill on one of my bound hands.

"What, being suicidal?" I squeaked, just before he turned it on. I flinched away, shaking. Only my hands weren't shaking, and that's because Dark was holding onto them tightly. "... Please stop?" I was going to get nightmares from this. I don't think he answered before he moved the tip to my temple. Was he trying to kill me or what?

My eyes were squeezed shut so tightly, I wasn't even sure I'd be able to open them again. My jaw was clenched and the rest of my body was trembling. I was doing my best to hold still, lest the drill slip and _actually_ kill me.

"Hey Dark, stop." Link was standing next to me now.

"I was only kidding, Zel," Dark said, turning off the drill.

"Zel." Link poked my arm.

"Zelda." Sheik snapped his fingers next to my ear.

"Untie me now," I said slowly, taking deep breaths, "so I can throttle you all!" They all started laughing as I glared at them.

(xxx)

Dark yelled and ran to hide behind the tall grass on the other side of the dam. Link put his arms around me and Sheik shuffled to the far side of the cucco enclosure, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

"Now, where's that crowbar?" I asked, rolling my wrists. Finally, after nearly three quarters of an hour, I had convinced Link to untie me. Well, help untie me. He had agreed only to untie my hands and loosen the knots behind my back in exchange for me to not hit him. And thank the Goddesses he had agreed to that, because I had been very close to simply biting through the knots. Being tied to a tree like that was more uncomfortable than I ever would've thought.

"Whoo, there's no way I'm _ever _arming you with a crowbar," Link said, shaking his head.

"... Please don't hurt me," Dark requested, creeping back to this side of the dam. I guess he decided I wasn't too dead set on killing him since I hadn't gone after him to moment I was untied.

"Give me a while to consider," I replied grumpily.

"NO! Please don't hurt me Zel! I'll pay you compensation!"

"With what?"

"Hugs!" he yelled, running to me and hugged me tightly. I sighed. You couldn't be angry with Dark for long. "All good?" he asked, looking up through his hair.

"Yeah, yeah, you're forgiven," I laughed. Damn him and his puppy eyes. A car drove up the driveway, and the horn honked twice over the loud music that was pouring out of the open windows. Dark ran to the gate to open it, waving.

"My step-dad brings food!" Dark yelled happily, calling us into the house.

"And Dark's sister," Link moaned quietly as we walked.

"Don't like her much," I guessed.

"The feeling's mutual." Dark's little sister strode past us, purposefully avoiding Link's eyes. If anything, she looked to be the complete opposite of her older brother; quite short, long blonde hair and walking with her chin jutting out.

"What did you do?" I whispered to Link once she was safely out of hearing distance.

"I, uh, _borrowed _her lizard once and painted it. Pink."

"A completely spontaneous decision?"

"Of course."

My stomach flipped hungrily as I walked into the house, greeted by the delicious smell of hot fish and chips. Dark's mother was already dividing one of the two big packages into four plates.

"Hungry?" she asked. We all nodded. "Oh, I forgot to ask before, but where's Tetra today?"

"She had swimming and then karate tonight," Sheik replied.

"_See _Dark, you should start doing sport too. Instead of just sitting there with your sketch book all day." She prodded her son with the back of a fork.

"Whatever." Apparently, they had had this discussion before. "Anyway, if I want to get into the Art institution next year, I needed to hand in a piece to send with my application."

"Hey Link, why don't you try out for Arts too?" I asked, poking him in the arm.

"Don't really want to. It's more expensive for one thing. And if Dark gets in, I can just steal all his tips," he shrugged.

"Don't try and steal any more than that," Dark warned, waggling a finger at him. "Don't you even dare to try and touch my markers."

"Yeah, yeah." Dark, Sheik and I plopped onto the cough, food in hand, and Link took the armchair just off to the side. Dark fiddled with the remote, flicking through the channels on television.

Half an hour later, Sheik finally stirred enough to ask, "What exactly are we watching at the moment?"

"... I have _no _idea," Dark replied slowly. He twirled the remoter in his hands. "Any suggestions for another movie?"

They finally decided on one. Before I knew it, Link was sitting next to me and I was falling asleep on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead, then my cheek.

"Aw, so sweet," Sheik murmured slyly.

"Does Sheiky want a kiss too?" Link snickered, raising an eyebrow.

"Not from you." When I gave him a grin and leaned towards him a little, he tried to scramble away, but only ended up falling off the couch on his behind. "Or from you!" I chuckled.

"Shut up, I'm watching!" Dark complained. He threw a couple pillows in our general direction, though his eyes were still on the screen.

"Sorry," the three of us muttered. And before I knew it, I was asleep. I didn't even know what it was, but the movie must've been boring.

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 28/01/11**

**Author's Note:**

Hey there!

So, how d'you like the chapter? Poor Zelda, being tied to a tree by her best friends...

This chapter was right at the end of the third term of school, but I'm going to skip the holidays. It would be filled with nothing more than mind numbing filler. And nobody likes filler.

But there's gonna be 2/3 chapters more. Now that we know that Zelda has finally decided to go to Hylia High, we can just get on with the sad partings. *smirk* Alright, not yet. But soon.

Okay, now I'm not making any sense. I beg that none of you ask me why in the world I'm writing this at 1:30 in the morning, and why I'm humming Christian hyms to myself while I'm doing it. But I'm going loopy. So you're just going to have to live with it.

I'll leave this here, before I start rambling on and on and on and on... oh crap, I've already done that, haven't I? Sorry, to everyone whose time I've wasted.

buddy w


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Zel!"

"Hey Dark! It's nice to see you too, but would you like to get off me?"

"Sorry." He removed his arms from his chokehold around me, the grin still huge on his face. "So, how were your holidays? Neither you or Midna ever picked up when I called home."

"Stupid! I told you we weren't going to be home during the holidays!" I chided, though I was still smiling.

"What? Where did you go?"

"We'd like to know that too, actually." I turned around to see Sheik and Tetra walking towards us. Damn it felt good to see my friends again, even if it had only been three weeks.

"Where's Link?" Tetra asked. I shrugged. I hadn't seen him for the duration of the holidays either.

"Why, starting to miss me?"

"Link!" I almost knocked him over at the speed at which I hit him, engulfing him in a tight hug.

"Whoa. So I take it you _did_ miss me?"

"Maybe..." I looked up to see him grinning cheekily as he returned the hug, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Anybody else?" he offered, spreading out his arms. Dark, Sheik and Tetra just stared at him dubiously. "Fine." He hugged me again.

"Hurry up and put your bags away. We've still got ten minutes until the bell, and I want to know what the princess here did during her holidays," Dark urged.

"That eager, huh?" I chuckled.

"Well, yeah. Because you haven't told any of us and I'm curious as hell."

It was still early, so the locker bay was pretty much deserted when we entered. While I was putting my bag into my locker, I started talking.

"So... I went to visit some relatives."

"Seriously? For three weeks?" Tetra asked curiously.

"Yep." I locked my locker and stood up to face them.

"Where do they live?"

"That new area, the Zora district. Like, three hours drive from here."

"The filthy rich place?"

"Yep, that's about right."

"What did you and Midna do for three weeks in a place like that? I mean, shopping would've been a damn expensive affair."

"Hah! Trust me, it was. Half the shopkeepers looked like they were going to ask us to pay for just window shopping, I swear."

"So what did you do for three weeks?" Dark looked like he'd burst if I didn't tell him.

"I was there to sort out my father's will," I sighed, trying to keep my voice void of any emotion, fixating my glare at the ground. I felt three hands touch my arm, and one wrap around my hand. No one said anything. I think they were waiting for me to go on myself. I laughed sharply after a moment. "You know, I never realised how many relatives I had. Actually, I think I'd barely met half of them, and those that I had are mostly pricks. I don't think I've ever met a group so money hungry in my life!"

"Those bastards," Sheik commented.

"So what happened?" Tetra asked. "You and Midna got most of his stuff, right?"

"Thankfully yes. And I'm not just saying that because I need the money, either. Midna and I got the money, the house, the car... pretty much everything. Except he did write out specific things to give some people. Like he gave a stack of papers to one of his cousins. I guess that was lucky, 'cause I had no idea what they meant anyway. And a bunch of really old books he gave to... some old couple who I had never met before, but apparently they were close in his younger days. Oh, and all the photo albums went to his sister."

"He had a sister?" Link asked, surprised.

"You never told us that," Dark added.

"That's because I'd never met his sister. He barely even mentioned her in front of me, but I do know that they had some huge disagreement when they were in college and never spoke to each other since then. But I also know how close they were when they were kids. That's probably why he left her the albums."

"So what was she like?"

"You know, I'm not really too sure. I didn't get to talk to her a lot. But, hell, she was beautiful. I'd say it was impossible that my father was related to her, but they had the same eyes..."

"What did she say to you?"

"She hugged me, told me good luck with the rest of my life and that I'd probably never really see her again. She said she had no intention of keeping in contact with the family."

"What a bitch," Dark surmised. I slapped him across the shoulder.

"Dark! Don't say that! She has her reasons, I guess. And now with my dad gone, she doesn't really have anyone to talk to. I mean, to tell you the truth, most of the rest of the family are just arse holes."

"She could've talked to you and Midna."

"She wouldn't. We remind her too much of Dad. She loved him so much, even though they hadn't talked for a while. Some of Dad's cousins told me she phoned them every once in a while to get all the news about us, without us actually having to talk to her."

"This isn't making me like her all that much..." Tetra said slowly.

"Doesn't matter if you do or don't like her. You'll never meet her, anyways."

The bell rang and all of a sudden the area was flurry of students, rushing back and forth, opening lockers, picking up books, throwing books and shoving each other around.

I waved overhead a couple times to Dark and Sheik, who were getting pushed along by the crowd of year ten students, all scurrying to class.

It felt... almost nice to be back in the classroom again. Our home room teacher was away, thankfully. Instead, we had an old, white haired substitute who wore tacky sandals on his feet. Not to say that all sandals were tacky of course. Link had some strange sandals too, but they were... alright, I didn't like them much either. They looked like they had _fur _on them.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" I asked Link quietly as the teacher preoccupied himself with shuffling through a wad of papers.

"Mmm... no, why?"

"Good. Now you're coming with me to Hylia High."

"What?" He looked a little shocked. In fact, that may have been an understatement.

"There's an info night tonight, for next year."

"So? Why do I have to come?"

"One, because even though I have a car now, I don't have my licence, and two, I don't want to go there alone."

"But Zel," he whined. "I don't want to go to some rich arse school with money leaking from all its holes. Those sorts of people are..."

"Snobs, bitchy, pompous, and I refuse to have to go mingle with them alone." I crossed my arms across my chest and sniffed, trying my best to look miffed. Tetra had been regarding our exchange with some amusement, but now she smirked and leaned back in her chair.

"You'll fit in perfectly then Zel. All you've gotta do is keep that face on," she joked. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, fine, I'll come," Link agreed.

"I knew you couldn't resist me, sweetheart." I pinched his cheek affectionately.

"Since when have I been 'sweetheart'?"he asked, surprised.

"Since you started acting like one." The teacher had started mumbling on about something he was scribbling on the board. I nudged Link. "Now pay attention. If you fail this test I'm never going to talk to you again."

"But math is boring," he complained.

"Shut up and _listen_."

(xxx)

"Finally," Link sighed, turning into the Hylia High car park. He swerved a little to the right, then turned sharply and parked the bike. Now Link's Epona was his pride and joy, and it's a beautiful bike to be sure, but compared to some of the vehicles parked in this place, that thing is garbage. Link notices it too, giving his bike a pat on the seat as though assuring it that it won't be forgotten.

"Is it right for me to be feeling very, very out of place right now?" he asked as we walked up to the buildings.

"Uh huh." I tried to sound confident. But I sure as hell wasn't. I didn't really fit in here either. I brushed back my hair, a little bit mussed up from the helmet I had been wearing. I had on my best jeans and shirt, but looking around now, I felt as out of place as a little child, in a bright pink tutu with matching wings.

We entered the building, the foyer of the main hall. I went to a table, found the little packet of papers with my name on them and then entered the hall, not meeting anyone's eye. Link was walking barely half a step behind me.

We took seats to the side of the hall, sighing gratefully as we noticed most people were choosing to sit in the middle stacks of seats.

Link took my hand as I started leafing through the papers, all full of cryptic information about subject and elective choices for next year and the year after, and all about the year twelve exams.

"Say, did you keep in contact with anyone here?" Link asked finally, looking around the hall with apparent interest.

"For a couple terms, yeah. But then all their conversations steered back to school work, and it was no fun if I had no idea what the hell they were talking about."

"Oh."

The Principal walked out on stage, stopping as she got to the microphone. She introduced herself, welcomed everyone and then started her usual blabbering about something or the other.

"Shouldn't you be listening?" Link whispered.

"Probably," I whispered back, keeping my concentration on trying to figure out what these papers were trying to tell me.

I think she talked on for almost an hour. Bored out of my wits, I had almost fallen asleep on Link's shoulder when she finally stopped talking, and told us that we were now free to walk around, ask questions and start deciding on subjects.

I got up gratefully and tried to stretch my limbs as inconspicuously as possible. Link took my hand again as we meandered around the hall, me commenting on every subject.

"Multimedia art looks fun, but I'm terrible with computers, so... I'd better not," I noted, watching the teacher's presentation from some distance, fiddling with a piece of paper.

"Why haven't people said anything to you? I mean, you've been here for years right? So the teachers and some of your old friends..." Link queried.

"I told you, I haven't talked to a lot of them in months. That, and they haven't really seen me since about the end of term 1. They probably don't recognize me now."

"Why not? Have you changed?"

"A little. I've grown my hair longer, and I've got these weird little bits hanging across my face." I motioned to the few strands of hair that refused to stay out of my way. "And I'm holding hands with you."

"What?" he laughed. "What does this have to do with me?"

"None of them would ever believe that boring old Zelda Harkinian would be going out with you. You're just... so different."

"As in, too rugged and good looking for you?" he teased. I smacked him over the head and he grinned at me. There was no way I'd ever admit it out loud, but it was something along those lines.

"Stay right here, I'll be right back," I ordered, ducking away through the crowd. They were selling drinks in the foyer and my throat was parched. I chugged down half the bottle of water before considering a coffee. Nah, these coffees were never any good anyway. I walked back to where I had left Link, water bottle in hand. He was no longer standing around, instead he had wandered over to a station where two tall, slender year twelve girls were explaining about some subject.

"So... Are you new to this school, Mr..."one of them started. She flicked her long, beautiful brown hair over her shoulder, twisting her body to make it seem as curvaceous as possible. As if she needed that.

"Link." He grinned widely at the two of them.

"Are you thinking of joining the school?" the other asked. This one looked almost like a twin of the other, except her hair was black and short.

"Well, I might, now I've seen what beautiful ladies they have here," he replied easily, grin never disappearing. I approached him quietly from behind, sticking my fingers hard into his sides. He jumped and turned, his face quickly relaxing once he saw that it was me.

"Business computing and sales, huh?" I read over his head. "Nah, not my thing." I almost dragged him away. Once we were far enough from that subject station, meaning the other side of the hall, we started walking casually again.

"Were you flirting with them?" I asked from the corner of my mouth. He pretended to consider for a moment.

"...Yes." At least he was honest. I elbowed him in the ribs.

"You're not allowed to do that." He grinned at me now, leaning forward and pecking my nose.

"Sorry. Won't happen again." He placed a quick kiss on my mouth before taking my hand again as we continued walking, commenting every so often.

"Isn't she the principal?" he suddenly whispered, staring at a woman across the room. I followed his gaze, eyes landing on the woman who was indeed the principal of Hylia High.

"Yeah…"

"Let's go talk to her." He grabbed my hand and started trouncing towards her.

"Hey hey hey hey! Stop, you psycho!" I planted my feet on the ground, but he still dragged me forward for a couple more steps. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to go talk to your principal."

"Why?" I spluttered. Link glanced at her.

"Well… she seems like a reasonable woman, I guess. Compared to the cow at our school, anyway."

"She's not that bad…" Hey, she had expelled a group of Sports Academy boys. I had to stick up for her, just a little.

"So she expelled a few guys who got on our nerves? Any idiot would've. They're a pain in the arse to everyone. At least this woman doesn't pile on eye make up to make her look dead creepy and dresses kind of normal," Link said. He walked towards her again.

She noticed him as he approached and smiled.

"Hello there, young man. Would you be one of our new students here next year?" she greeted welcomingly.

"Unfortunately no. But Zelda here will be," he added, glancing at me over his shoulder. I came up, level with him as the principal smiled at us.

"Zelda… You wouldn't be a Harkinian, would you?"

"That would be me, Miss," I replied, trying to sound… even vaguely interested.

"It's great to have you back, Zelda. And who might this lad be?" Thank the goddesses she didn't mention my father. I may have hurt her then. And that wouldn't have been a good career move on my part.

"I'm Link," he introduced himself. "A friend of the family." Indeed. He opened his mouth again, the words pouring out enthusiastically as he chatted with the principal jovially. Both of them were seemingly enjoying the conversation.

"Excuse me for a moment," I pardoned, slinking away back into the crowd. Link would find me again eventually.

I walked fast, but aimlessly. In the back of my mind, I was considering whether just to go and wait by the bike. Somebody ran into my just as I was about to exit into the foyer. Stopped me, would have been better.

"Zel!" she squealed, spinning me around by the shoulders.

"… Malon?"

"What, you don't recognize me?" She feigned hurt.

"N…no. I just… Malon!"

"Glad to see you're still incoherent," she laughed.

"Shut up," was my pathetic comeback. She laughed again and this time I grinned too. She held me at arm's length, hand still resting on my shoulder. She looked me up at down, as if she were expecting some drastic change.

"You haven't changed at all," I noted. Her hair was still as long and red, tied up in a neat pony tail as she had had it every day since primary school. Her grin was still wide and quirky, and she still wore the same clothes that I had seen her wear a year ago. Same ol' Malon.

"I'd say you haven't either, but I saw you come in with that gorgeous blonde."

"'Gorgeous blonde'," I snorted, shaking my head. Definitely the same Malon. "Let's hope he didn't hear you say that."

"Where is he anyway?"

I turned around and pointed to where he stood, still talking animatedly to the principal. Malon raised an eyebrow.

"Nice…"

"I'm not going to bother asking you what exactly you were making that comment about," I replied. She cuffed my shoulder.

"Who is he?"

"Link."

"Just Link?"

"Just Link."

"Well, I think he's gorgeous."

"You would."

"Don't you?"

"Of course. But there are other things that come into my mind when I think of him."

"Indeed… like what?" she prompted, grinning slyly.

"That, my friend, I am not going to tell you." I sighed and started moving forward. "I guess I'll go to the rescue."

"He doesn't look much like he needs rescuing," she commented.

"I meant the principal." I knew Link well enough to realise that now he's started, he probably won't stop in anywhere near an hour.

"You chose friends wisely, Harkinian," the principal said when I approached them again, beaming at Link and I. Or maybe it was just at Link. I wasn't too sure.

"Thank you." I purposefully checked the watch on my wrist. "We'll need to get going soon, Link. It's past nine." Link nodded slowly.

"Well, I won't keep you children here," the principal excused. "It was very nice talking with you Link."

"You too," he barely got out, before I dragged him away.

"Have I ever told you that you are insane?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"All I did was talk to the principal," he replied, as though this was something you did every day.

"My point exactly."

"Hey there!" Malon suddenly interrupted as we came up to her. "I'm Malon. An old friend of Zelda's." She offered her hand and Link shook it warmly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Link."

"Great. Now that we all know each other, can we go?" I pestered. Link sighed.

"Are you really that eager to get away from here?" I nodded several times, making him sigh again. "Alright…"

Again, he called out a goodbye to Malon as he was being bodily dragged from the hall into the foyer. By this time, I was just about ready to run to the bike and speed away myself, but I didn't know how to drive the thing.

Link handed me a helmet as he sat on the front of the bike, me already seated and practically bouncing up and down while willing it to start.

"I'm going, I'm going," he said quietly. The bike revved for a moment, before he spun it around and headed out of the car park.

As we turned into a side street, I finally relaxed, leaning my head in the crook of his neck and taking a couple of deep breaths.

"We're not really going home already, are we?' he asked, the sound muffled slightly by the helmet and the fact that he was facing forward. "You said it yourself, it's barely even nine."

"I don't care what we do. I just wanted to get away from that place."

"Any ideas?"

"Do you have any work for tomorrow that you need to do?"

"Nope. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"Of course," I laughed. "So? You have anything in mind?"

"Honestly, no. I just thought we'd go for a walk or something."

"Sounds good to me."

He continued forward, turning into a few more side streets and then stopped as he came to the entrance of what I guessed was a park.

"Kakariko Park," he said. I had guessed right. "I used to come here a lot with my parents when I was little."

Every time he mentioned his parents I ached to know more about them. This time was no different. But as usual, he had that sad sort of expression as he spoke of them. That expression made me hold my tongue.

"Come on," he urged me, smiling. I followed for a few steps, then drew beside him, walking in stride together.

"Why were you so eager to get out of Hylia High?" he asked eventually, ending our friendly silence.

"I… don't know. The place makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Didn't feel too bad to me, once we weren't in view of the car park, anyway."

"I could see that," I replied with a smirk. He grinned back and took my hand, swinging it back and forth.

"Is it too late for me to back out of this scholarship deal?" I asked futilely.

"Definitely." He paused. "I've told you this before, but I'm sure your father would be proud."

"He won't be when I fail next year."

"Don't be stupid. You won't fail. You'll find a way around it, I'm sure."

"Well, sleeping with the teachers is always an option…" He turned to me, horrified for a moment that I was being serious.

"I didn't mean bribes," he whispered, looking down at his feet.

"Silly boy." I tapped him on his shoulder. "I would never do that. I'm not that type of person."

There was another long silence, each of us caught in our own thoughts.

"Just… don't forget me, alright?" he requested, his voice barely having risen since his last sentence a few minutes ago.

"What?" I asked, taken aback.

"I just don't want you to forget me. I know it hasn't been long for us, but… I can't… I don't know. I'm being stupid," he concluded with a self depreciating sigh. He _was _being stupid.

"How could you think that I would forget you?" I asked, half amused, half annoyed. "After everything this year… for me to forget you, it would take one serious accident and a heck of a lot of memory loss. And I'd probably have to have like half my heart carved out as well."

"I… don't know. I'm stupid." He was.

"And that's why I love you." I pecked him quickly on the cheek. "And I won't forget you."

"Promise?"

"Promise," I agreed.

"You know," he started. "If it weren't for my eternal lack of money, I may have seriously considered moving to Hylia High. Who knew there could be so many pretty girls at a school that's so defined?"

"You don't need to have brains to go to Hylia High, just money," I sighed.

"I could tell. My poor Epona was feeling a little down back there. Oh, I wanted to ask you. How're you going to get to school next year?"

"You could drive me," I suggested teasingly.

"No way. I am not driving one hour to get here, another to get back and then go to school myself. I'd have to get up at like five in the morning!" He looked genuinely unhappy with even the thought of getting up so early. His grimace made me snigger.

"I was considering taking my driving test during the holidays, but even then I'll only be able to go to school in a car if I find someone at school who already has a licence. Stupid rules," I grumbled. "Meanwhile... I'll just take the bus, I guess."

"Public bus or school bus?"

"Public. No matter how many rallies are held, the school wouldn't just 'throw away' their money on transporting their students around."

He considered for a moment. "Public buses aren't safe you know," he informed me, very matter-of-factly. "Isn't there anyone you could get a ride with or something?"

"... No, Link. And I won't die, I promise you."

"You say that now, but how am I supposed to _know _that?"

"You can call me six times an hour if that makes you happy," I proposed sarcastically.

"I will," he replied, completely seriously. Oh, dear Goddesses.

(xxx)

It may sound silly, but the time I miss my father the most is at night. When the sky is dark, a cold breeze is blowing, the moon mingles among the stars and it is quiet through the house. It may be the quiet that scares me most.

It's childish, but I miss when my father would come into my bedroom before I went to sleep. He'd sit on the edge of my bed, tell me a joke so bad that it'd have me crying with tears of laugher, kiss me on the cheek then turn off the light on his way out.

If I'd wake up in the middle of the night, the sound of my father's snoring comforted me back to sleep. His bedroom door was hardly ever closed, so his snores would reverberate through the house.

It is so different now.

Now, I climb into bed late at night, no one there to tell me to get enough sleep. I squirm around in the blankets, trying to find a comfortable position. Once I do, I tend to remember that the light is still on. After turning it off and finding my comfortable position once again, I'll listen to some crappy late night radio, hoping that one of their jokes may one day make me laugh. Once the show finishes, I close my eyes and hope for sleep to take over, but the silence is deafening, making me cold to the core. I'll shove some earphones into my ears, connected to anything that plays music, curl up into a ball and slowly, sleep will come.

It is so different now.

I would give so much for it to go back to the way it was.

Sometimes it takes hours for me to fall asleep.

But the darkness always overwhelms me eventually.

* * *

**A/N EDIT: re-uploaded 28/01/11**

**Author's Note:**

**So, uh, hi there. Does anyone even remember me? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. **

**Anyway, I hope you liked this next instalment. Honestly, I didn't put a heap of work into it. I had an idea, and wrote it down as quickly as possible before it got crowded out of my mind. It's short, but it was the best I could do for now. Sorry. **

**Oh, and for anyone who cares, there should only be one more chapter of this story, and then an epilogue. This one was set at the beginning of term four, the next will be in the last week. I know, huge time gap, but otherwise it'd just be all filler. Well, more filler than it already is. **

**So the plan is that the next chapter will be up in the next few weeks, the next one sometime after that. After that, I am planning to redo this story. Not the plot, just the writing. I know that first few chapters especially were pretty bad, so I'll straighten those up at least. Maybe I'll do them before the next update... either way, you'll know. **

**Thank you so much for reading, and staying with me over this long, boring time. Review if you find the time, otherwise keep a look out for the next few chapters!**

**buddy w**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The end of term was finally approaching. Exams were over, thank the goddesses. I've been told several times in the past that I get frightfully moody while exams are happening. And, without Dad, I think Midna was just about to have a nervous breakdown herself.

My results were good. I would say thankfully, but apparently, nothing less was expected of me. We had just a week before summer holidays begin. So, naturally, lockers were being cleaned out all over the school and books being sold cheaply to the year level below. Rubbish bins had never been better fed.

"Are you, uh, sure that you want to do this, Dark?" I asked doubtfully, standing a good three feet behind him. He nodded determinedly. Link grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back another two feet.

"Have you told everyone else to bugger off?" Dark asked.

"Mm hmm," Tetra replied.

"Everyone? You sure?"

"Yep."

"Have you all got your air freshener?"

"Check."

"Cloth to cover your nose?"

"Check."

"Coffins in case we all die?"

"... They're around the corner. Should I bring them closer?"

"Sheik!" Tetra elbowed him in the ribs.

"Alright guys," Dark took a long breath, "Let's do it." He covered his mouth and nose with the handkerchief he held and the rest of us followed suit, taking an unconscious step backwards. Dark opened the door of his locker and I swear if I hadn't been mildly prepared for it, the stench would've killed me. Immediately, Sheik and Tetra pulled out their large cans of air freshener and started spraying madly. Dark looked like he was choking on the ground.

Finally, Link dashed to the locker, slammed it closed and retreated again. The smell it had been spewing was cut off.

"That," Dark coughed, "was even worse than I thought it would be." We all nodded in agreement.

Dark had officially stopped using his locker about a month and a half ago; two weeks into the final term. He hadn't been using it very much after the second term in the year anyway, but by the beginning of this term, there were almost no books in his own locker and the space was no longer used. While his books were spread through the four of our lockers, Dark neglected to clean out the filth in his own and instead let it stew. It was now toxic.

"So what do we do now?" I asked. "We only have forty minutes of lunch left."

"I say we go in again, only this time armed with long tongs and a huge garbage bag," Dark proposed bravely.

"... Alright," Link agreed.

"I'm staying back here," I put in. There was no way I was even going near that stuff. It might've been radioactive, and I was _not_ ready for super hero-dom.

"Same here," Tetra piped up, coming to stand beside me. Sheik, Dark and Link pulled handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses and armed with long tongs and a black rubbish bag they approached the locker again.

I'm certain they did their best to make quick work of it, dumping all the partly disintegrated papers into it. They realised a bit too late that one garbage bag was not going to be enough, so Sheik ended up bodily yanking the metal bin out of its place on the corner of the garden bed and dragging it over too.

I could not fathom how they did not die from the fumes that the locker was emitting. I felt myself beginning to gag several times as more and more pieces of what was surely formerly _something _came out of the locker and into the bin. Never before had I considered the possibility that paper could _smell. _

As they got further back into the locker, the only partly discernible objects became more and more vile. There were several lunches that I'm sure Dark's mother would have gone to great pains to make for him. I saw, more than once, a piece of fruit that had things quite literally crawling in, out and through it. And, nearing the end of the process, they got to the ice-coffee bottles. Of those, there were too many. Dark, while he had recently started to attempt to lessen his caffeine intake, had seemingly stored every single ice-coffee bottle in his locker that he had – mostly – finished since the first semester; all in all, there was enough to fill the entire bin.

The large garbage bag was completely full with a mixture of degrading paper and discarded lunches and the bin was about to overflow with plastic bottles when finally, his locker was nearly empty. Sheik grabbed the pile of glad wrap that was wrapped around what was basically dirt with his long tongs, pulled it a little way out of the corner it had been shrivelling in then let out the most high pitched yelp I have ever heard from a man.

"What?" I asked, though it sounded more like a muffled cough.

"… Dark," Sheik started, taking a large step backwards and holding his tongs out in front of him like they were a weapon. I guess in this situation, they were. Link in turn took a step forward and peered forward inquiringly into the locker.

"I think you're breeding insects, Dark," Link observed dryly, scrunching up his nose. Now it was my turn to let out a yelp. I took a quick step forward, grabbed Link by the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards until he was a decidedly safe distance from the insect farm.

"Really?" Dark looked mildly excited at the comment as he took his turn to peer into the darkness, with his tongs, he poked around in the corner a bit until scores of various bug life scrambled out. Cockroaches seemed to be the most abundant, but there were plenty of things that I didn't even recognise. At one point, it looked like a family of flies buzzed out. "Hey, look Sheik! I think we now know what happened to that fly I named Marley that got trapped in my locker like two terms ago!"

"I thought you only trapped one in there."

"So did I, but I guess Marley met Marline and decided that she was pretty enough to be his locker soul mate."

"I can't even believe I'm suggesting this, but Dark, are you really proposing that you have an insight into the minds of flies?"

"Maybe I am, Sheik. Maybe I am."

(xxx)

I had never seen so many people all congregated into the one place as I did when I entered the indoor play centre. People of all ages had gathered on the giant indoor playground for a couple hours of cheap fun. I could hear little six year olds squealing as I clumsily took off my shoes and headed towards a cluster of tables on one side of the space.

"Hey Zel!"

"Hey Tetra," I greeted her. "OW!" I gave Dark a furious stare, but he only punched me hard in the arm again. "What was that for?"

"That was for skipping school today. I was all alone!" he complained loudly, his dark bangs hanging in front of his face.

"Hey Sheik – _Ow! _– why didn't you – _Dark, stop!_ – go to school – _For Goddesses sake Dark, that hurts!_ – today? – _Dark, I'm bruising!_" I punched him back in the arm, though mine was definitely much softer than his had been.

"I slept in," Sheik shrugged, in answer to my very disconnected sentence. "And... yeah. We weren't doing anything today anyway. They were pretty much just going to unleash us on the computers, and I can do that at home."

"Yeah, but I found some awesome video game components," Dark declared proudly. "By the way, does anyone know where Link is?"

"Nope. Told me he was coming though," I replied.

Sheik and Dark merrily skipped over to the giant drop slide, a partly vertical slide that I did not have the guts to even climb to the top of, while Tetra and I decided to find a nice, not-so-quiet spot to sit.

A little while later, after Tetra and I had most likely greeted and chased most of the little under eight year olds, Sheik and Dark reappeared, dragging Link along after them while he attempted to yell something after Aryll.

"- Keep your phone on you! And don't eat too much and then run around! And, for Goddesses sake, don't go down that drop slide head first!" He sighed. "Hey guys. Zel, Aryll's found Midna and now I'm not going to able to find her again for the rest of the night."

"Ah, don't worry," I supported. "If nothing else, you could drag her out of the place after everyone else has left."

"... Maybe. Or I could consider the possibility of spiking her drink with a laxative and dragging her home out of the toilets in an hour."

"That's disgusting," I informed him, causing him to grin at me.

"You carry laxatives around with you?" Dark asked.

"... Shit."

"Exactly," Dark laughed. All four of us agreed that even putting the idea into Dark's head was not a good thing.

Discovering pretty efficiently that we could essentially not be bothered doing anything, the five of us stayed in our little corner for plenty of the night. Halfway through a conversation with Tetra, I became aware that the boys were having a completely unrelated and strange conversation.

"-kiss Zelda?"

"What?" I asked, glaring at Dark who had proposed the question that I had only heard half of.

"Mm... Twenty rupees," Sheik replied pensively.

"Wait, wait, wait. What, to kiss Zelda?" I insisted.

"Only twenty?" Dark glanced at me. "I think I deserve more than that."

"Alright, firstly, I don't even know what you're talking about, but that's still offensive, and secondly, Link, _why aren't you saying anything?"_

"I'll give you twenty five," Link offered. I aimed a punch at his ribs, before scrambling away from Dark, who had crawled forward.

"Alright," Dark agreed.

"Link!" I despaired, scrambling to my feet. When Dark stood up too, I gave the other three the dirtiest look I could before running away. Fast.

I found Midna and Aryll on the large jumping castle, both of them giggling like mad whilst they attempted to jump high enough to flip over their heads. I stuck around and watched them for a little while, until I decided that maybe the others had forgotten about their bet and it was safe for me to return.

I hadn't assumed wrongly; in fact, my estimation of Dark's ten second memory was probably very close. By the time I had gotten back, they had moved onto other prospects.

"How much would you give me if I kissed... her?" Dark pointed out a girl that none of us knew well at all as she passed by.

"Ten," Sheik said. "You don't even know her. It wouldn't be all that awkward, especially if you never saw again after this."

"What about... Ooh, you know that girl, the one with the huge-"

"Thirty," Link replied, without letting Dark finish. It wasn't all that hard to figure out what he was going to say. "Because while you might not, I _do_ know her well."

It was not all that long before the centre started closing up. Everyone started leaving with parents, and soon, there wasn't all that many people left.

"Give me a piggy back," Sheik said, coming up behind me. I shrugged.

"Sure."

"Wow, I actually didn't think you'd do it." He jumped onto my back and I kept walking to the door.

"Thank goodness you're not heavy," I told him. "It'd be a pain if I was trying to carry Midna." ...Who just happened to be walking past. She shoved me roughly and I tilted to the side, eventually letting go of Sheik in order to try and regain my balance. As a result, both of us ended up on the ground.

"Hey Zel, how much would you give me if I kissed Sheik?"

"Dark!" Sheik growled as he pushed himself off the floor and ran after our friend, who was now, quite literally, running for his life.

(xxx)

It was sweet of Link to suggest going to the movies. And taking me out to dinner was an adorable idea. I would say that it was the most fun I had had in a while, but, as of late, my life seems to be comparable to a very large party. Still, I enjoyed it a lot.

"There's only a week to go," Link reminded me.

"Yeah, I know," I sighed. We sat together in a little booth in a little corner of a little restaurant that was at the corner of two little streets. All quite quaint, really. "I'm still not quite sure I want to leave."

"Good," he decided suddenly. "That means there's less of a chance of you forgetting me."

"I've told you already, there's no way that I'm going to forget _any_ of you." He kissed me briefly, then went back to fiddling with my hair. I tugged on his own. "You could really use a haircut, you know."

"... Yeah, maybe," he agreed. "I don't think Aryll appreciates the fact that my hair is nearly as long as hers, and way prettier." I laughed at his use of the word 'prettier'.

"And I don't think that your hair is physically describable as pretty." He pouted mockingly and I kissed him again. Is it possible to become sentimental about something that has not yet passed? For that was the feeling I had; like I was losing something huge. I guess in a way, I was.

My father told me once, years and years ago, that everything that was good was accompanied by something bad. I think it was the reasoning that he used when I was ten years old and distraught over my dead fish. I demanded to know what was good about this situation, after all, my beloved little fish was dead, lying belly up in his bowl, so what on earth could be good about this? In a moment, I had happily seized the two little coins that lay in his hand had prepared myself to run down to the shops at the end of the street, intending to buy all the sweets I could. So, whilst the memory of my poor fish still lingered in my mind, its prime placement was taken away and replaced by something much more important for a ten year old.

I found I was in much the same situation now. Of course, I hadn't kept any fish for years now, after the death of too many to count, and I'm not certain a couple of rupees would do it for me, but I tried my best to handle it the same way. Life at East Hyrule High was ending now. The year was over, and I had different prospects ahead of me. My mind had torn with my heart at my decision to go to Hylia High, but there was no going back on it now.

"I think, in this situation, I would remind you that it was your decision to go back," Link mused. "But... I guess I can't really use that excuse."

"Because it was your idea."

"Mm..."

"I still don't know why you did it," I told him.

"Neither do I," he admitted, running a hand through his 'pretty' hair, which direly needed a comb. "I just figured that I should be... well, the serious one, for once. You weren't thinking straight, and I figured someone had to."

"You probably could've just left it to one of the others." I brought his hand up to my lips and kissed them.

"I could have," he conceded with a nod. "But what if Dark had decided to take responsibility? You may've ended up... Hell, I don't even want to think about it." We laughed in one of those cliché moments of happiness, where just about everything else is forgotten.

(xxx)

I knew it wasn't like I was never going to see them again. That was completely ridiculous. In fact, they had assured me that they would be around so much next year, I'd get sick of them. Having that reassurance spoken out loud just made leaving harder.

I had emptied my locker a couple days ago, leaving only one folder of paper in case it was needed and quite literally two pens. Yet somehow, even though I did not have very much in it, my bag still ended up being quite heavy. I had my semester report in there, and while it was only paper, I couldn't get it out of my mind to stop feeling like it weighed a ton. I stood just outside the locker bay, waiting for the others and doing my best not to get teary and look like a sook.

I hugged just about everyone who left the locker bay, with many promises to come see everyone again. I truly wasn't sure how well I would be able to hold to those statements, but it reassured me to say them nonetheless.

The entire year I had been friends with them; gotten to know them, like them, anticipate them sometimes. And still, just like the first day of school, my friends were just about the last people to get out of the locker bay. And this was _after_ we had cleaned Dark's locker, mind you.

I hugged Sheik, sniffling once though I was determined not to cry. He smiled at me and I'm afraid the one I returned was more than a little watery. Tetra embraced me firmly, and I was glad to see that I was not the only becoming a teeny bit emotional.

I did feel a little bit dumb when a tear slid down my cheek. After all, as I said before, this was definitely not the last time I was going to see them. I had a week long orientation program and Hylia all of next week, and the others were all in an orientation for year eleven here. It did not help my notion of stupidness that I had that childish feeling of being left out. In the back of mind, something kept taunting me, 'you could have stayed, Zelda... You didn't have to move'. And I couldn't figure out a way to explain to myself that I sort of did have to. And after all that, some relative of mine had decided to take the responsibility of Minda and I not being alone on New Year. So that's where we were obligated to spend the rest of our holiday. And then school would start again.

When Dark hugged me, he had a stiff grin on his face, one that told me how hard he was trying to be manlier than Tetra. His facade broke down when he pretty much started bawling his eyes out, mockingly at first, but I was sure a couple of those tears were sincere. I know all the ones that were running down my cheeks were, though I was still trying to distinguish the ones of laughter from those of sadness.

It was only a few weeks, I kept trying to tell myself. And then I'd have every single weekend and afternoon next year to spend with them. But something was telling me that it might not turn out to be as easy as that.

Link took my hand as I gave my three best friends the biggest grin I could conjure. If I put everything I was thinking into words, my corniness would most definitely have earned me more than a couple shouts of laughter and arm punches.

"See you later guys," I said, giving them one wave. And I would, I was positive. I mean, no one can live just ten minutes away from each other and never see one another; it just didn't happen that way. And besides, I was certain that they would not let me go for long without them. Who else would keep me firmly chained to insanity?

Link kissed me quickly on the mouth, then looked behind him.

"You owe me twenty rupees, Dark," he called.

"Aw, man!"

"Link!" I shoved him in the side. "You're getting paid to kiss your girlfriend?"

"Sure," he admitted without a problem. "I decided that Dark was twenty rupees too wealthy."

"But why do you get it? I mean, I think I should be the one getting paid to kiss you, not the other way around." He was quiet for a moment.

"We'll split it, fifty-fifty," he proposed.

"Done."

I couldn't imagine getting through next year without them.

* * *

**A/N: **

**Woo, hi there! I know, I can't believe I'm actually updating this either, but it's really happening. And this time, I even have sort of a good reason for taking so long! I've redone the entire rest of the story. Well, it's basically the same, except not **_**as**_** badly written, with much of the useless bits removed and a few names and dates being changed around here and there. Nothing major, mind you, but I still think it may be worth scanning through. **

**Anyway, that, as you may have guessed, was pretty much the last chapter. I say pretty much, because I still have an epilogue coming, but even that should be added in a day or two at the most. **

**Oh, and I was thinking of doing a sequel a while ago, just a series of one-shots probably, but I'm not so sure about it. Any suggestions? To do, or not to do?**

**Thanks for reading. **

**buddy w**


	17. Epilogue

Epilogue

It had started off being quite sad to be the only one of my age around. Now it was just pure torture. Sure, I could talk to Midna, but not _all _the time. And besides, she's been with me her whole life. There isn't really that much to say now. And all that my various relatives want to talk about is school and studies and are you taking any tutoring? Argh, it was my holidays, for Goddesses sake!

To make matters worse, I had somehow ended up with quite possibly the only people in the entire Hyrule who shunned electronics. So no mindless television to lessen the wounds a bit, oh no. Instead they encouraged me to play board games. And sure, Monopoly was fun, but only about the first three times. After that, I figured it just got ridiculous.

I did still have access to a phone, although my mobile had been taken away 'so that you girls can start being raised right', but somehow I could just never pick the phone and dial. Perhaps it made me feel like I was losing. I kept telling myself that I could get through a few weeks without my friends, I could.

It was getting harder and harder as time went on.

The books for next year at Hylia High had come along with me, perhaps tripling the weight of my bag. And while I did spend a bit of time during the days pouring over them, just making sure that there wasn't anything I was completely clueless about, it was coming to a point where I would've been reasonably content to burn them. Get rid of the reminders.

Midna came into the room just as I seriously contemplated buying a lighter, or at the very least a box of matches, the next time I was dragged shopping.

"Happy New Year, Zel!" she chirped, coming to sit on the bed opposite me. I checked my watch in surprise.

"Happy New Year," I replied, stunned. I hadn't realised the date, after losing track of the time within the first week; everything had just seemed to go on for eons.

"You got something in the mail." Midna pulled out an envelope from the pocket of her jeans and handed it to me. "Oh, and the scary one with claws says we're going out for dinner, so you need 'to have a shower, remember to wash everywhere, put in a bit of effort to make yourself look better than just average and then report downstairs in an hour'. Have fun with that. Apparently, she'll just be happy if I comb my hair."

"Ugh," I groaned, taking the envelope from her. "I bet you she's taking us to some place where the special is vegetables on top of vegetable on top of more _healthy_ vegetables." I seriously missed my fridge at home, where it was possible to eat something that was the polar opposite of 'good for you'.

"I'm... gonna go see if I can try and bribe one of the dumb, little ones to buy me something hot, fried, covered in chocolate and ultimately unhealthy," Midna decided, positively drooling at the thought.

"Save some for me," I called after her as she walked out of the room. It took me a moment to remove the happy fantasy of chocolate from my mind and remember the envelope in my lap. I flipped it over and recognized Sheik's elegant, slightly curvy writing on the back, addressing it to me.

The card was one wishing me a Happy New Year, but I wasn't much interested in the cover. I eagerly opened it and read what was scrawled inside.

_To Zelda,_

_One year only! Hell, it's going to take more than a year to get rid of us! We should kidnap you back inconspicuously... or perhaps just launch an attack on the school. As much as I like the second option better, we might need some extra troops. That place is huge!_

_Remember, Dark and I know how to tie some pretty tricky knots, and I'm sure Link and Tetra could be taught. They're fast learners. _(There was a crude drawing, most definitely done by Dark, of someone tied to a tree. I grimaced and shook my head.) _Is there any teachers you don't like? Hostage situations are always interesting. Or... we could help your teachers and tie you up again! A much more entertaining prospect. _(I shook my head quickly. It definitely was not.)

_Oh, and by the way, how many fire extinguishers are there in that fancy ass school of yours? Nah, we were just kidding. We wouldn't want to ruin your chances of being the school's __star __student, now would we? _

_Good luck with whatever you decide to do next year and all the years to come - and expect an invasion!_

_Happy New Year, and don't let those old people get you down. _

(There were a couple splodges of ink, a couple scribbles here and there, and then underneath, I could see they'd finally decided how to go on.)

_Love from,_

_Sheik, Dark, Tetra and Link. _(Everyone had signed in their own hand, and I ran my thumb over the names and smiled. There was one more line, right on the bottom of the page.)

_One year only! ... It's gonna take a lot longer than that to get rid of us!_

* * *

**A/N:**

**The End. **

**And I know, FINALLY. I can't believe this has taken me close to a year and a half, and I apologise for that. This epilogue was pretty short, but I didn't have all that many loose ends to tie up.**

**Not much to say, except a huge thanks to everyone who has stuck with me through this, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, has this on Alert and/or in favs. Everything in much appreciated. **

**I most likely will not be doing a sequel, but I have got a couple other stories that I'm planning to upload sometime in the hopefully near future. So maybe keep an eye out for those.**

**Please review and let me know what you thought of the story, my first complete fanfic. **

**Last but not least, a **_**DISCLAIMER: Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo. **_

**Over and out. **

**buddy w**


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